Time Warner Cable Internet subscribers, check your mailboxes: A modem rental fee of $3.95 a month is in your future.
“All Northeast Internet customers outside of New York City will begin to see the $3.95/month fee starting November 1st,” Joli Plucknette-Farmen, Time Warner communications manager for western New York, said in an email.
“Notifications are being mailed to all Northeast customers this week.”
Internet subscribers can avoid the monthly charge by purchasing their own modems for between $50 and $100.
Phone subscribers who do not have Internet service will not be charged the fee, according to the company.
A similar modem charge ignited a backlash among subscribers in New York City, who were told in early October they would be facing the $3.95 fee. That fee kicked in Oct. 15, prompting some consumers to label it a rate hike disguised as a rental fee.
“It is strictly a fee for customers who choose to lease their Internet modem from us,” said Plucknette-Farmen. “We have been charging similar fees [$8.49] for our set-top boxes.”
So why is Time Warner now charging for a service it had provided its customers for free? Adding $3.95 to the company’s standard Internet rate of $54.99 represents a 7 percent increase.
“As we continue to deploy more and more cable modems, many of these modems need servicing or replacing, get damaged and some are not returned,” said Plucknette-Farmen. “The monthly lease charge will allow us to service or replace the equipment, provide a better user experience and further enhance our Internet services.”
Subscribers who choose to buy their own modem should check a list of approved modems for their specific tier of Internet service at
www.twc.com/approvedmodems, the company said.
The modem rental charge in New York City has triggered a flurry of critical reports online and in print media.
The New York Times last Tuesday profiled a subscriber in Manhattan who opted to purchase a modem. The customer, a telephone and Internet subscriber, was told by the company he would still need the old modem for his phone service in addition to the new modem he purchased for Internet use.
“Retail providers do not currently offer embedded multimedia terminal adaptors, which are necessary for home phone service,” explained Plucknette-Farmen.
Time Warner is not the only company to charge a modem rental fee.
Bright House Communications based in Syracuse just instituted a modem maintenance and rental fee. The cable TV company with a customer base in central Florida notified customers in mid-September that the $2 fee for modems would take effect Oct. 1.
And Comcast’s policy of charging customers $7 for modem and router rental had sparked a lawsuit that was dismissed in January by a federal judge, according to dslreports.com.
Time Warner also may face a modem-related lawsuit launched by the disgruntled subscriber in Manhattan, according to the Times.
Subscribers in Pennsylvania, Maine, and North and South Carolina also are being hit with the rental fee effective Nov. 1.
TWC has about 15 million customers in the United States, said Plucknette-Farmen. The company is in the process of instituting modem rental fees nationwide.
Distributed by MCT Information Services.
You can get your own for around $25. Doesn’t have to be the latest and greatest. Newegg.com, gearxs.com, etc. All have them.
So they already have the modems and just now they’re suddenly going to be charged a rental fee? Definitely sounds like a disguised rate hike.
sounds like a ripoff…reply to me and i can get you $10 off a month with directv!
I had Direct for 3 years. Local folk’s were real good when it came to installation and service. BUT, their customer service over the phone and their billing was HORRIBLE ! Anytime I called, Direct’s own people just never seem to know what they were doing. Billing was never accurate, always 30 to 60 days behind, they had no working knowldge of their own programming and acted as if I was an annoyance to them by my calling. But when they started splitting up commonly used channels with these stupid QVC type’s, and then had the nerve to try and charge me TRIPLE what I had been paying to get the basic channel’s I had been using, well, that was the last straw. I went to Dish and have never looked back. And I went to Dish over the 1-800 number, not the local vendor. I have heard WAY too many horror story’s from people I know and respect about the local Dish vendor’s to go and make that mistake. Referral’s work both way’s. And it’s a lesson that a LOT of Maine business’s need to learn…….
it may be just for this year or the next two years but i was with dish for close to 9 years and before that it was Moosehead Cable (if you don’t know what thats like…25 channels and nothing else – ever…but 3 PBS!) Maybe its because I have a friend in the company but I got everything right now only paying $65 a month…and i mean everything. Granted when it comes up in December I will be canceling the movie channels, perhaps the sports extra pack (i only got it for soccer), and maybe even downgrading a package. All I really watch are locals, movies, sports.
Dish networks are notorious for not providing “real” local channels. The ones they finally provide are “local” for somewhere else.
I cut the cable 20 years ago when they started trying to charge me to watch commercials. I do not miss it a bit.