Fake Consumer Rights Group Says Getting Ripped-Off for Internet Use Is Good For You

Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet at 3:06 PM on April 23, 2009.

Last week, Time Warner Media temporarily suspended its metered billing program after customers and consumer rights groups drowned the cable giant in complaints. (Under the company's "pay-per-byte" program, customers sign up for differently priced plans; users who use more bandwidth than their chosen plan allows are charged extra.)

So what’s a cable giant to do when customers don’t gladly accept their ploy to exploit a monopolized marketplace through egregious price-gouging?

Lay low while a fake consumer rights group runs a lobbying and propaganda campaign on your behalf!

According to Megan Tady on Savetheinternet.com:

Cable and phone companies, many of which are eyeing similar price structures, don’t want to see TWC fail. So enter the American Consumer Institute, the fake consumer group that is trying to convince us that excluding people from using the Internet is a good thing. Oh, and so is stifling online video innovation.

The ACI sent an open letter to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and other congressional members outlining the merits of pricing structures that limit Internet access.

Who is behind the bellowing? The Web site is actually registered to Stephen Pociask, a telecom consultant and former chief economist for Bell Atlantic. If he sounds familiar, it’s because we blogged about him before when ACI claimed Net Neutrality – the principle that all online content should be equally accessible –  is dangerous for consumers.

TWC has dropped its plan – for now. But it’s obvious the cable industry will do everything it can to push controversial pricing schemes, including trying to act like a concerned citizens’ group. But don’t mistake this Astroturf for the real grassroots.

Tagged as: protest, internet, broadband, rip-off, time warner, metered billing, customers, aci