Time Warner Feeling Heat From Google Fiber, Raises Speeds In Charlotte
Back in January, Google announced that its Fiber networking service was slated to launch in 18 cities in Atlanta, GA; Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, NC; and Nashville, TN metro areas. The news was undoubtedly good to hear for businesses and residential customers alike that will benefit from the gigabit Internet speeds.
However, Google Fiber's presence in Charlotte may have pushed cable/broadband company Time Warner Cable into taking action against the threat of losing residential customers to Google by raising the speeds of its current broadband packages without raising the cost. The company calls this upgrade "TWC Maxx," and it will roll out the increased speeds starting this week.
"Customers who subscribe to Standard, formerly up to 15 Mbps, will now receive up to 50 Mbps; customers who subscribe to Extreme, formerly up to 30 Mbps, will now receive up to 200 Mbps; and customers who subscribe to Ultimate, formerly up to 50 Mbps, will receive up to 300 Mbps, at no extra charge," Time Warner Cable reported in a press release.
In addition to the speed bump, Time Warner Cable also said the TV service will be enhanced with a new DVR that doubles the previous amount of internal storage provided on the company's largest DVR. This new DVR will enable subscribers to record six different high-definition TV shows simultaneously and stash them on 1 TB of internal storage.
Time Warner Cable indicated that it plans to update every network connection site located in the Charlotte area. The company also stated that customers without a digital box will be provided with a digital adapter at no charge until August 11, 2016. These customers include those who plug the cable directly into a TV or other third-party set-top-boxes. The deadline to order a digital adapter is December 10, 2015.
Time Warner Cable is currently offering a "Triple Play" service costing $119.99 per month that includes broadband speeds of up to 30 Mbps, over 200 TV channels, and free calling features. There's also a basic Internet plan that costs $29.99 per month for download speeds of up to 3 Mbps. Customers can even get basic cable television for $39.99 per month. All of these prices are for 12 months only.
As for Google Fiber, Google offers three plans: Gigabit + TV, Gigabit Internet and Basic Internet. Gigabit + TV costs $130 per month and provides gigabit Internet (up and down) and over 150 channels; a $300 installation fee is waived if customers commit to one year. The same holds true with the cheaper Gigabit Internet plan for $70. Basic Internet is free, but customers will be required to pay the $300 construction fee. The downloads and uploads are also 5 Mbps and 1 Mbps, respectively.
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Update, 4/13/15, 2:45pm PT: Fixed typo.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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nicodemus_mm ..."Triple Play" service costing $119.99 per month that includes broadband speeds of up to 30 Gbps...Reply
Too bad that's a typo, otherwise I'd move to Charlotte for TWC. -
John Wittenberg This, THIS!!!! Is exactly why we need true competition for internet providers! It forces them provide better service or lose cutomers.Reply -
littleleo When I 1st got the TWC triple play it was $99, $33 for TV with DVRs, $33 for phone for unlimited nation wide calling, and $33 for internet. Every 3 months they would raise the cost and I'd have to call in and argue with TWC to get them to put the bill back. After awhile they said the "promotion" was over and raised my rates again. So far to keep my bill around $100, I've dropped my phone service, returned my DVRs, reduced my channel package. Last Monday they sent me a new bill raising my rates an additional $20 per month with no explanation. Looks like it might be a good time to drop the TV service and give Sling TV a try. Unfortunately in my area they are the only broad band option. Where is the over-site on this monopoly, oh that's right they are getting paid by TWC to look the other way.Reply -
mitch074 Geez, I'm happy to live in Europe, then : 20 (twenty) bucks a month brings me unlimited landline calls across a hundred countries, 120 TV channels (that I don't use) and VDSL Internet connectivity (30Mbps down, 8 Mbps up - that's a hardware copper line limitation, actually, as I live in the countryside; living in town would get me 200 Mbps ). 35 bucks would get me free cell phone calls in several countries, a DVR and 2 hours of cell phone use.Reply -
John Wittenberg This, THIS!!!! Is exactly why we need true competition for internet providers! It forces them provide better service or lose cutomers.Reply -
derekullo Hypothetical Time Warner Announcement:Reply
With a few minor tweaks to our network our Engineers were able to increase bandwidth by up to 500%.
Not sure which is scarier, the cliched "up to 300 megabits" or that they had 6 times the bandwidth they were not letting anyone use just so they could respond to google encroaching on their territory. -
knowom FCC basically forcing them to *gasp* actually innovate or lag behind competition willing to actually do so thanks net neutrality. This just demonstrates how scared larger ISP's are of competing with smaller ISP's over consumer satisfaction. No longer do they have a free monopoly right screw consumers and restrict competition from competing against them.Reply -
TeamColeINC Thank you Google, this is the exact competition that was necessary to get these greedy ISP off their behinds.Reply -
jrharbort Still waiting for Time Warner in my area (Southern California desert cities area) to raise their speeds. But since it's a competition between only two major providers (Verizon and TWC), I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. Still stuck on the 15Mbps down/1Mbps up plan. My phone actually gets better speed than this over 4G.Reply -
Shankovich Great that competition is forcing this. But....Google fiber is still faster for the same price of the top two speeds guys :pReply