Time Warner ISP Review & Reader Survey Results

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Tom’s Hardware's ISP round-up puts the power in the hands of our readers, who gave us their opinion of the nation's top Internet service providers. And now it's time to take a closer look at Time Warner Cable.

Overall: 2 ¾ Stars

Generally speaking, cable Internet providers score high marks in the performance and reliability categories, and then receive disappointing ratings in the price and support department. Not coincidentally, the two lowest-scoring categories were the most important factors when choosing an ISP, according to our readers. The overall score of 2 3/4 (2.80) stars out of five seems to reflect a weighted average when accounting for what matters most to our surveyed participants: pricing and support. 

The performance and reliability marks for Time Warner are average for cable Internet providers overall; Comcast garnered similar scores. These categories also achieved the highest ratings, yet were less important factors when choosing an ISP, according to the Time Warner Cable subscribers who participated in our survey.

"The service, speed and reliability are the things that have me hooked," said one participant who rated everything but pricing at or above three stars. “Customer support and pricing (which is offered at a reasonable rate and [then] climbs over time) are both hugely frustrating,” stated another, who otherwise provided high marks for Time Warner Cable.

The overall score doesn't reflect a true average of the combined criteria, but this is likely due to the weight the poorly-scored categories carry with our readers.

Conclusion

Despite serving up the best price-to performance ratio in our review series so far, our readers rated Time Warner Cable's pricing at a modest 2 1/4 stars. We've seen overall dissatisfaction with pricing for each ISP we've examined, but TWC's score is surprisingly a top contender in our review series so far.

Performance and reliability seems to be the bread and butter of Time Warner Cable, with greater than three-star ratings for each of those categories. However, these impressive scores do not seem to influence our reader's overwhelmingly sub-par analysis of the company's pricing and support; each category consistently garners below three star ratings. It should also be noted that Time Warner Cable is in contention for the top score in each category so far.

Here's our full results from our Time Warner Cable ISP survey results:

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Price (2)Performance (4)Reliability (3)Support (1)Overall
★★ ¼ (2.36) Stars★★★ ¼  (3.17) Stars★★★ ½ (3.37) Stars★★ ½  (2.56) Stars★★ ¾ (2.80) Stars

Each category is labeled with the results of the most- and least-important factors when deciding on an ISP, and each score is tallied with its one- to five-star rounded and mathematical average. These scores are so closely in line with other ISPs that we can tell it’s going to be a very close race for first place in each category.

Tom's Hardware's ISP round-up is nearing its end. Thanks goes out to our dedicated community for providing their opinions. In our final ISP evaluation, we will examine another DSL and fiber optic service provider: Verizon.

Derek Forrest is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware. Follow him on Twitter.

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Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes hardware news and reviews gaming desktops and laptops.
52 Comments Comment from the forums
  • utroz
    Yeah well all know how Time Warner is.. They have faulty lines that they refuse to fix in my area causing both internet and cable tv to have outages at least 1-2 times a day for 5 min or so.. Really annoying when watching netflix and stuff.. One good thing is no data caps for me which is good as we pull around 20TB a month download ( not even close to what I could if I was pulling data 24/7 at max bandwidth). All it takes is a few people watching neflix, hulu, youtube, downloading updates, online gaming,ect.. Comcast's 300GB limit is a total joke.. I could pee 300GB of data.. ;)
    Reply
  • holyneo
    I love my TWC service, I get like insane speeds (60-75Mbps down, 6Mbps up). My service never goes down, I could complain about the price, but my complaint is more for the TV service price. Nobody comes close to those speeds in my area. I can stream 4k content with no problems as well.
    Reply
  • LookItsRain
    I understand that prices differ between cities and states, but TWC wants 65 dollars for 50/5, 45 dollars for 20/2 and 15 for 2/1. Prices are much higher than what is listed here, and 50/5 is the fastest you can get in my area. Not to mention the price jumps after the 12 month promotion, or the complete lack of competition that allows them to do this.

    Not to mention it goes out every month, and even has more issues with its DNS(thanks google 8.8.8.8.8).
    Reply
  • thburninator
    Seeing these rates makes me sad. The "Extreme" is the highest option offered in my area, and that costs about $75 a month. I pay $60 for 30 down/ 5 up. Then again, that is basically my only high-speed option in my area, so it's not like I have much choice anyways.
    Reply
  • dangus
    Those prices are just straight up not what TWC offers in my area. My bill is almost $65/month and i get 25 down/5 up......
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    Should have checked prices in more than one city and state. I doubt TWC would have scored 2.25 on pricing if everyone could get 50Mbps for $35/month regular (non-promo) rate.
    Reply
  • ChuckLezPC
    What area in Texas did you test? I currently pay $60 (non-promo rate for NE Ohio) for 15/1 (would have to pay $80 to get 30/5). I would shank someone to get 50/5 for $35.

    Maybe consider taking multiple cities (and/or states without google fiber), and average them.

    Also, you did not need to enter an address to get their rates: http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/support/account-and-billing/topics/retail-rates.html
    Reply
  • QuangT
    TWC is decent if you live in a highly populated area, they get things done fast since there are other companies like Verizon, Optimum, etc. here in NYC. When I lived in a house, the performance was terrible which huge packet loss 24/7 for over 3 years. After moving to my apartment, the only bad performance was just internet loss for about a couple of hours. This happened twice for the past 2 years, otherwise constant 50/5 with <1% packet loss at all time.
    Reply
  • Gurg
    My experience: When paying for 30mbps got around 36, now paying for extreme 50mbps and getting 62. Dropped Directv and went with bundle with TV and phone (new add on for us) and am now paying over $100 less than with TWC and DTV separately.

    Initially when using TWC rented combined router/modem unit my service was terrible and spotty. Bought my own sb6141 modem and ASUS router and everything is working great throughout the home.

    If you are unhappy with TWC service and performance and using their rental modem/router that could be the cause of the problem.
    Reply
  • EnigmaX
    Yeah, I created an account just to chime in on how far the pricing in the article is off in my area (Upstate NY). I pay $58/mo for the privilege of 15/1 service. And for that, I can thank an absence of competition.

    Calling into tech support for various sustained drops in speed (as low as 0.05 mb/s for hours at a time, a couple times each month), has resulted in them simply pointing fingers at my hardware (purchased cable modem, router, cables). Techs have been sent, and they just test my lines, scratch their heads, and leave.

    The upside is that I now have a perfectly functioning backup for each component. The downside is they still haven't fixed THEIR issue. But, then again, what's their incentive?

    The obvious solution is for government to get out of bed with the ISP's and allow competition. Only then will pricing, speed, and reliability see noticeable improvement. (But, money...)
    Reply