Sony, Microsoft, and OnLive Discuss Time Warner's Tiered Internet Packages

[Shawn Zipay]

In case you haven't heard yet, Time Warner will soon start to test their new tiered Internet packages. The problem is that for gamers, or streaming media enthusiasts, these packages leave a lot to be desired.

• A limited package for "light users" at 1GB/month, 768KB down / 128KB up, with overage charges of $2/GB/month.
• Road Runner Lite, Basic, Standard, and Turbo packages at 10GB / 20GB / 40GB / and 60GB caps, respectively, and overage charges at $1/GB/month.
• A big daddy, 100GB Turbo package at $75/month with overage fees of $1/GB, which, when coupled with that magic threshold of $75 in charges, becomes the "unlimited" plan.

The MTV Multiplayer Blog asked a few of the heavy hitters from the current generation of consoles, Sony and Microsoft, to see how these caps will impact them. OnLive, the upcoming service that features nothing but streaming games was also asked for their take.

Surprisingly, all three said that they weren't too worried about how their individual services would hold up. However, their scenarios certainly didn't seem to take into account users with multiple online devices.

“For most average users the 60GB plan is more than suitable for their PlayStation Network download needs,” Abigail Murphy, a spokesperson for the company’s PlayStation division, Sony Computer Entertainment America, told MTV Multiplayer. Downloads of games, game demos and movies from the PSN store can add up to several GB. Online gaming with a title like “Killzone 2” won’t add a limit-bursting burden on consumers’ broadband. According to Murphy, SCEA calculated that “bandwidth per hour for playing a multiplayer game online using PS3 is roughly 25 to 55MB.” Using “Home,” requires “significantly less.”

Hit the jump to see what Microsoft and OnLive had to say about these very strict bandwidth caps.<!--more-->

Microsoft says little at all. Microsoft’s Xbox Live service would also be subject to such usage and seemingly test the limits of Time Warner’s plans. But the company is refraining from taking a stance on the matter yet: “We’re watching these tiering proposals as they evolve,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement e-mailed to MTV Multiplayer yesterday before Time Warner Cable revised its pricing plan. “Microsoft supports an environment in which users can access the content, applications and services of their choice, provided their activities are lawful and fall within the scope of their user agreements.”

As for OnLive, even the streaming heavy format of its program won't be enough to hinder gamers. At least, this is according to OnLive founder, Steven Perlman.

Perlman estimated that high-definition gaming through OnLive service would use 950MB/hour. The standard-definition version would require 350MB/hour. While that would appear to limit a gamer who used, say, the Time Warner 60GB plan to little more than 60 hours of high-def gaming a month, Perlman thinks its premature to think that OnLive is going to made to suffer.(...)

“Bandwidth caps will be bumped into by conventional movie/TV viewing WAY before we start seeing OnLive users bumping into them. And, no doubt users who exceed a minuscule 5GB monthly budget downloading one movie from Netflix, Amazon or iTunes, or who find themselves spending $200/month on broadband usage fees for 7 hours of TV viewing on YouTube or Hulu will (a) be rather incensed and (b) likely switch to an alternate broadband carrier. It will be a very long time before OnLive comes anywhere near the broadband penetration of YouTube, Hulu, iTunes, Amazon, mtv, abc/nbc/cbs/fox/hbo.com, etc., if ever. So, we won’t be the ones testing this issue.”

Unfortunately, many users where Time Warner is testing this cap do not have the luxury of switching to another high-speed provider.

Feel free to read more over at the MTV Multiplayer Blog.

[Linux]

Re: Sony, Microsoft, and OnLive Discuss Time Warner's Tiered Internet Packages

Well that suck for all those who are gong to get stuck with that crap. Good thing I have Cox at the moment, but going to be upgrading to a Full T1\T3 package later in the summer for work ^^.

[-:Nighthawk:-]

Re: Sony, Microsoft, and OnLive Discuss Time Warner's Tiered Internet Packages

That's pretty ridiculous, but I suppose where there's a buck to be made people will try to grab it. I only use unlimited data services--my phone and internet alike are completely free from "have I used my limit yet?" nonsense. Even the local movie stores have eliminated late fees for having a movie past the "limit" of days you rented it for. Simply put, I don't like putting extra restrictions on my lifestyle where they're not needed, and I don't like worrying about a high bill if I make use of the services I pay for.

Apparently businesses which can exercise their monopoly in an area don't have to worry about fair treatment of customers, however. Sad to see this, and depending on how it goes it may be another reason for me to rejoice when I leave the midwest and head back to the west coast and the land of Verizon internet.