Sign in / up

back to article Google's 1Gbps fiber 'not driving' Time Warner Cable's sudden Austin speed increase

Time Warner Cable (TWC) is to upgrade its network in Austin, Texas over the summer to allow internet speeds of up to 300Mbps, but says this has nothing to do with Google's decision to make the city its third installation of 1Gbps fiber. "It's not driving it, it's more about customer demand," a company spokeswoman told The …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anomalous Cowturd
    Stop

    Make 'em 'ave it!!!

    So, Septics, which would you prefer, 1 to 10 Gb/s or 300 Mb/s?

    I'd be happy with either, but if they're the same price, I'll have the fast one please. ;o)

    P.S. Nice one Google. If you've got to run fibre round the country, at least let everybody benefit.

    Are you listening, and watching, British Telecom? FFS, we need some competition on the right side of the pond. And not just in the Virgin (cables inherited from Telewest/Blue Yonder and others.) cabled, high population areas. I live on the main street in my moderately sized town (60k+), 200 yards from the main exchange, but can't get FTTH from any-one.

    4 0
  2. Mikel

    The response to Google fiber is unanimous

    "Come here next!"

    10 0
  3. Uncle Ron

    Details, Please !

    Yes, but at what COST? With what DATA CAPS? Right now, I have 20 Mbs from TWC and that's plenty fine for a couple of simultaneous Roku HD video streams and surfing all at the same time. TWC -currently- does not impose a data cap.

    Time Warner Cable's erstwhile owner, Comcast, however, is currently already price-gouging it's monopoly customers to the tune of $10 USD per 50GB of data over a cap of 300GB. For something that multiple credible studies have shown costs nearly nothing. Last month I used 716 Gigabytes of data. Two people in my house. That would have cost me around $150 USD just for internet service. Unbelievably profitable for the ISP. In baseball season, I would use, probably, 1/3 more. Couple dollars for EACH game.

    They can increase the speed to a Billion Mbs and it won't add a thing to the streaming experience. It's Capping and Metering that stinks, and amounts to monopoly price-gouging.

    6 1
  4. ecofeco Silver badge
    Windows

    Customer demand?

    You mean the customers who have been demanding more for their overpriced shite and now have an alternative?

    THAT customer demand?

    8 0
  5. Dave 124

    Verizon Should take note too...

    As I sit here with my 56mbs Verizon FIOS I am fascinated tat my rate drops below 1mps within 115 minutes of drawing anything from AWS. Hook to AWS through my T-Mobile hot-spot and I have instant response, back to FIOS dead stop... so to Verizon kills my AWS account, Netflix and Amazon Prime.... so here is to hoping the Google express passes our way...

    3 0
  6. normcf

    So, why only Austin?

    Why not across their entire customer base? or anywhere else?

    0 0
  7. Gene Cash Silver badge
    Mushroom

    F*cking lying sacks of sh*t

    I just want to smash them in the face. All of them.

    What *REALLY* sucks is this means TW will the *4th* gigabit provider in Austin! (Except AT&T is still only 250mb and "will be gigabit Real Soon Now" according to customers)

    How about Time Warner making it's subsidiary Brighthouse Cable here in Orlando:

    A) Get its service over 4mb

    B) Build a working billing website

    C) Get Youtube working. I have a VPN account so I can tunnel to Miami and get Youtube videos that don't constantly halt and stutter. They're obviously throttling it.

    I love how Verizon FIOS built out their fiber anywhere in the NE they had competition... then stopped.

    Baseball bats. The entire lot. And toenails pulled out with pliers.

    4 0
  8. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    Dear Google

    Please offer to service my town.

    You don't actually have to do it (we're a little cow town in Louisiana) but the mere threat of competitive high speed internet (that is anything over 2mb) will make both COX and AT&T improve their service.

    1 0
  9. tom dial Silver badge

    Competition: Cox v. AT&T

    A couple of years ago (in Cleveland) I was induced to switch from Cox to AT&T, which had just brought fiber to the neighborhood (still copper to the house, though). This was based on a promise of more speed for fewer dollars. Not much risk, since AT&T ate the installation &setup fee and allowed free 30 day evaluation. The results:

    Cox 15 Mbit (usually measured at 20 - 25) @ $50/mo. v. AT&T 18 Mbit (usually measured 10 - 12 and never exceeded 15 when I checked) for the same $50/mo. AT&T also destroyed the existing Cox feed by cutting cables, one of them mine, at several points. They also hassled about termination and equipment return when I switched back.

    Others' experience may differ, but Cox always seemed to keep ahead of the operational demand and, at least in my neighborhood, generally delivered better than the plan spec. I look forward with anticipation to the possibility that Google will arrive in Salt Lake City to compete with Comcast ("up to 50 Mbit, usually less than 35, @ $70) and CenturyLink (in my neighborhood "up to 6 Mbit" @, I think, $30).

    0 0
    1. Tom 13
      Reply Icon

      Re: Competition: Cox v. AT&T

      When an installer for a cable company sees someone else's wires they usually cut them. I recall that being a problem when I was using Comcast for tv, Verizon for phone, and the ancestor to Starpower for my internet.

      These days I'm with Verizon on FIOS, but their days may be numbered. Problems connecting to Netflix weren't as bad last night, but still there. You can tell they've got some complicated throttling going on. Finished watching an episode that clipped through cleanly from load to finish. Clicked to watch the very next episode in the queue while my roommate went to move laundry in the basement, refill her water bottle, grab a snack to eat, and settle down on the couch just as the red line reached the end of "buffering". At which point it was another 30 seconds before the episode actually started. Required bandwidth per Netflix: 1.5 to 3.5, available bandwidth according to speed testing: 13-19.

      0 0
  10. earl grey
    Thumb Up

    no FIOS?

    IIRC, Verizon declined to fibre up a few of the NE US cities because the corrupt local governments were demanding multiple local tv stations to be set up for the cities to use (free) and for Verizon to pay for.... More political gimme, gimme, gimme....and they just said NO.

    0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like