Throttled to death.
I've been thinking a lot about cutting the cable with Time Warner Cable. I started thinking about it after I read this Wired article last fall, but never actually thought I'd do it until I signed up for Netflix streaming and XBox announced Live TV at E3 this year.
Now with recent rumors about Apple trying to kill the cable industry using Apple TV and iCloud, we're getting closer and closer to the death of cable TV. But reading Robert Scoble's Google+ post about Apple TV the other day forced me to think of a huge potential problem; internet access.
Although we pay for Time Warner Cable's Road Runner Turbo, the fastest internet access possible with the service provider, every single time I stream something - whether I'm watching Netflix, talking to my parents on Skype, or appearing as a guest on TWiT - TWC never fails to cut off my internet forcing me to reboot my modem and wifi over and over again. This is called throttling, and it's driving me f*cking crazy.
As more and more people dump cable for internet streamed television, we're going to have to address this problem in a big way. Currently I'm looking for alternatives to TWC in my area, preferably a service provider that doesn't need to string a line through my apartment building to get me internet service. I'm looking for the future... there must be someone out there who's providing throttle-free wireless internet service at ludicrous speed! If not, they'd better start doing it soon... otherwise we'll all have to file a class action suit against service provider TWC and their lack of, y'know, providing service.