Time Warner Cable

Time Warner Cable is one of the largest cable television providers in the United States. Time Warner Cable announced in February 2009 that it would cut around 1,250 jobs, totaling about percent of its total workforce, in light of the harsh economic climate and a drop in subscribers.Reuters: Time Warner Cable to cut 1,250 jobs (February 4, 2009)

Time Warner Cable plans to test a new "consumption-based" billing system for Broadband Internet access in New York and North Carolina during the summer of 2009 with the hope of expanding the system to other markets in the future. The consumption-based system would put caps on the amount of bandwidth a user is allowed to use per month and charge fees for going over that amount. Los Angeles Times consumer columnist David Lazarus estimates that some user may end up paying $150 per month for Broadband Internet service.Wall Street Journal: Time Warner Cable Gets Protests... (April 15, 2009)L.A. Times: Time Warner's painful pricing plan (April 15, 2009)

Key Dates

1989: American Television and Communications Corp. merges with Warner Cable as a result of Time Inc.-Warner Communications merge
1994: Wins Emmy award for Outstanding Achievement in Technological Development
1995: On-Time Guarantee customer service program
1996: Introduces Road Runner high-speed Internet
1998: First carries CBS HD signals
2002: Movies on demand available to all TWC customers
2003: Launches first HD-DVR
2005: Launches digital phone service
2007: Company goes public

Dispute with Viacom

Time Warner Cable customers would have lost access to several channels by midnight, January 1, 2009, due to a dispute with Viacom regarding carriage fees, but a deal was reached in the night of January 1, 2009, that allows Time Warner Cable to continue to provide the channels to customers. Viacom planned to raise carriage fees for Time Warner between 22 percent to 36 percent for each channel.CNN: Viacom-Time Warner Cable in truce (January 1, 2009)