Time Warner Cable Internet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Road Runner (ISP))
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is missing information about the history of Road Runner. This concern has been noted on the talk page where whether or not to include such information may be discussed. (August 2012)

Time Warner Cable Internet is a US Internet service provider (ISP) which provides cable Internet service over DOCSIS-compatible modems. A division of Time Warner Cable, it also contracts its service to other cable providers, often in competition with ISPs owned by local telephone companies. Time Warner Cable Internet was previously known as Road Runner High Speed Online.

Contents

History [edit]

Road Runner's official logo and mascot

Road Runner service was first launched with a 1995 market test in Elmira, NY, under the banner Southern Tier On-Line Community.[1] Later it became known as LineRunner[2] (a moniker subsequently employed by VoIP service), before Time Warner Cable adopted the Road Runner brand name.

Road Runner High Speed Online employed the Road Runner character from the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoon series as its mascot and brand name. However, in 2012, it was rebranded as simply Time Warner Cable Internet, dropping the Road Runner branding which Time Warner Cable had to license from the now-unaffiliated Warner Bros.[3]

Tier service [edit]

With the completion of DOCSIS 3.0 rollout in 2012,[4] Time Warner Cable Internet has standardized the Internet tiered service data rates across most of its franchises, although some minor regional variations might still exist. The maximum advertised speeds[5] for these services are:

  • Basic: 3.0 Mbit/s / 1.0 Mbit/s
  • Standard: 15 Mbit/s / 1 Mbit/s
  • Turbo: 20 Mbit/s / 2 Mbit/s
  • Extreme: 30 Mbit/s / 5 Mbit/s
  • Ultimate: 50 Mbit/s / 5 Mbit/s

The Extreme and Ultimate service tier offerings were created in 2009, and became available in markets as Time Warner Cable rolled out DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades nationwide.[6]

Previous service tiers that have been retired were Lite and Turbo Plus. Lite was intended as a low-cost, low-speed (1 Mbit/s or less) alternative to DSL services, which, at the time, were generally cheaper than cable internet service, but also slower. Turbo Plus was a faster speed tier than Turbo, but slower than the future DOCSIS 3.0-based tiers, and as Extreme and Ultimate tiers became available, Turbo Plus was dropped.

PowerBoost [edit]

PowerBoost was a technology that allowed Road Runner customers to temporarily experience download speeds significantly faster than their current speed at no extra cost. PowerBoost was launched in New York City in 2008,[7] and eventually was rolled out nationwide. PowerBoost was first included only with Turbo service, but eventually was extended to Standard service also in 2009.[8] As of 2012, Time Warner Cable Internet's service offerings no longer make any mention of PowerBoost,[5] though it may still be available with some service tiers on a regional basis. Time Warner Cable does not support PowerBoost on DOCSIS 3.0.[9]

Modem Rental [edit]

Time Warner Cable Internet previously provided the cable modem and modem maintenance for free to its subscribers as part of their service. Beginning in late 2012, they began charging a modem rental fee of $3.95/month for this service. Alternatively, subscribers can buy their own approved modem, but Time Warner Cable will no longer troubleshoot or replace those modems.[10]

Bandwidth caps [edit]

 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009)

Despite raising prices of its Internet service within the previous year, Time Warner Cable announced in February 2009 that it would expand its bandwidth caps and overage fees into four additional markets by the end of the year.

On April 1, 2009, the cities to have metered billing were announced. In addition to Beaumont, Texas, the cities would be Rochester, NY, Austin and San Antonio, TX and Greensboro, NC.

These metered based billing plans were canceled according to Time Warner "due to customer misunderstanding"

Caps would range from 5 GB to 100GB with no unlimited option. The bandwidth will include downloads and uploads. If a user goes over, they will be charged $1 per additional gigabyte. Time Warner Cable announced they would provide a meter for users to monitor their usage. The new plan was set to begin in the summer of 2009, however due to protests they had decided against the bandwidth caps. Currently, users have unlimited bandwidth usage.[citation needed] Time Warner would have offered unlimited data for $150/month had the plan continued.[11]

CEO Glenn Britt justified the new billing plans, claiming the infrastructures had to be continuously upgraded and users would pay for how much they use.

Facebook groups have been created in protest in addition to an online petition and a Web site dedicated to stop the movement.[12] Other Web sites have been recently following the Time Warner cap plans that were already following broadband Internet providers metering and capping plans,[13][14]

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Eric Massa, both of whom represent portions of the Rochester, New York market that would be affected by the changes, announced their opposition to the plan and even went as far as to threaten legislation to ban such a scheme. On April 16, 2009, Time Warner abandoned the plan.[15]

Road Runner Mobile [edit]

 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

In late 2009, Time Warner Cable began reselling Clearwire Mobile WiMax service as Road Runner Mobile, including in bundles with the company's existing broadband, TV and VoIP services. In October 2009, the company indicated that they'd be launching their incarnation of the service starting December 1 in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte and Greensboro, and later, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Honolulu, and Maui.[16] Pricing for the "up to 6 Mbit/s" service ranged from $39.95 a month to $79.95 a month depending on the chosen bundling options, and came in three flavors:

Road Runner Mobile 4G National Elite: gave customers unlimited access to both Time Warner Cable's 4G Mobile Network and Sprint's 3G EVDO network for $79.95 if the customer was a Roadrunner Standard or Turbo customer.

Road Runner Mobile 4G Elite: gave customers unlimited access to the Time Warner Cable 4G Mobile Network for $49.95 if already a Roadrunner Standard or Turbo customer.

Road Runner Mobile 4G Choice: gave customers access to the Time Warner Cable 4G Mobile Network for $39.95 if the customer was already bundling at least two Time Warner Cable services. The tier also capped usage at 250 MB per month.

Users received additional discounts if they were triple play customers.

As of late 2011, Time Warner Cable stopped signing up new Road Runner Mobile customers under resold Clearwire WiMax service. Existing WiMax customers could continue to use the service, but TWC began signing up new Road Runner Mobile customers under resold Verizon Wireless 4G LTE services.

As of late 2012, however, all mention of Time Warner Cable-branded mobile broadband services have been removed from Time Warner Cable's website and most regional franchises. TWC appears to have exited the mobile broadband market.

Companies offering Road Runner [edit]

Question book-new.svg
 This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2012)

MediaOne was formerly the largest of Time Warner's Road Runner partners, leaving the agreement when taken over by AT&T Broadband (subsequently absorbed by Comcast).

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Cable World, March 10, 2003". Findarticles.com. 2003-03-10. Retrieved 2012-07-16. 
  2. ^ "Time-Warner Announces High Speed Data Services". Listserv.buffalo.edu. Retrieved 2012-07-16. 
  3. ^ "Time Warner Cable Kills the Roadrunner". DSLReports.com. 2012-05-15. Retrieved 2012-10-26. 
  4. ^ "Digging Deeper Into Time Warner Cable’s 2011 Results and What Is Coming in 2012". Stop the Cap!. 2012-02-01. Retrieved 2012-10-26. 
  5. ^ a b "Internet Plans & Packages". TimeWarnerCable.com. Retrieved 2012-10-26. 
  6. ^ "TIME WARNER CABLE LAUNCHES ITS FASTEST INTERNET YET IN NEW YORK CITY WITH TIME WARNER CABLE WIDEBAND INTERNET & BUSINESS CLASS WIDEBAND INTERNET". Time Warner Cable. 2009-09-24. Retrieved 2012-10-26. 
  7. ^ "POWERBOOST™ LAUNCHES IN NYC". Time Warner Cable. 2008-06-27. Retrieved 2012-10-26. 
  8. ^ "Powerboost Being Deployed At No Charge to All Standard Service Road Runner Customers". Stop the Cap!. 2009-04-29. Retrieved 2012-10-26. 
  9. ^ "[TWC] No more powerboost?". DSLReport. 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2012-10-30. 
  10. ^ "Time Warner Cable to Charge Modem Rental Fee". New York Times. 2012-10-02. Retrieved 2012-10-26. 
  11. ^ Eddy, Nathan. "Time Warner to Offer Unlimited Bandwidth for $150 a Month." eWeek. April 10, 2009. Retrieved on May 5, 2009.
  12. ^ "Stoptwc.info". Stoptwc.info. 2009-04-16. Retrieved 2012-07-16. 
  13. ^ "Stopthecap.com". Stopthecap.com. Retrieved 2012-07-16. 
  14. ^ "Meterthis.net". Meterthis.net. Retrieved 2012-07-16. 
  15. ^ Stiehl, Renata. Time Warner Cable to Shelve Consumption Billing. WENY-TV. April 16, 2009. Retrieved on May 5, 2009.
  16. ^ "DSLreports.com". DSLreports.com. 2009-11-24. Retrieved 2012-07-16. 

External links [edit]
Important people
  • Glenn Britt (CEO)
  • Robert Marcus (CFO)
  • Landel Hobbs (COO)
Time Warner Center
Internet properties
Cable television channels
News channels
YNN affiliates
Other regions
Sports channels
Local / Regional
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Time_Warner_Cable_Internet&oldid=551366650"