Time Warner: Too little, too late?

Carol Wilson September 24th, 2009

Time Warner Cable proudly unveiled its fastest Internet access service in New York City — 50 Megabits per second downstream/5 Mbps upstream for about $100 for consumers — and got, at best, tepid applause.

If anything, the announcement focused attention on what TWC hasn’t done, as in rolling out Docsis 3.0 technology across its footprint. Obviously, New York City is not only its largest market, but also the target of a major Verizon FiOS rollout.

Other large ISPs have been playing in the faster Internet speed business for longer, and offering incentives and discounts to lure consumers as well.

I think the time has past when speed is the primary draw of an Internet service. Price still plays a role, but consumers are looking for high-quality customer service and reliability, ease of installation and operation and more relevant bundles, i.e., bundle options that let them pick and choose which services they want.

Business customers, particularly small businesses, are a target of the TWC offering, but even here they may be missing the boat. Certainly, business class 50 Meg service for $289.95 is attractive, but depending on what the small business plans to do with its Internet offering, managed services could well have greater appeal at a price tag that is not a huge leap for a small business.

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5 Comments to “Time Warner: Too little, too late?”

1. joe ruda Says:
   

   September 24th, 2009 at 1:15 pm

   when optimum (cablevision) a privately held company, that has a large footprint in the outlying boroughs of NYC (and owns madison square garden) can offer over double the speed for download (101Mbps) and three times the speed for upload (15Mbps) for the same price point, I wonder if TWC truly understands the broadband market and what its customers want. If I had a choice between TWC and FiOS, then FiOS is beginning to look good, however since i am in an optimum/cablevision franchise area I don’t care if FiOS ever makes it to my block….

2. Lou Klepner Says:
   

   September 25th, 2009 at 8:17 am

   Correction: I see that TWCable has notified you about the original misprint of 50/5 for $99.95, which was corrected in the final paragraph but is still somewhat misleading in the first paragraph.

   It seems that corrections of this magnitude should be accompanied by an editorial note. I know the NYTimes, WashPo, WSJ would add an editorial note in this type of circumstance.

   For reference, according to my inquiry with TWC NYC yesterday, their current business class offerings are as follows:

   —

   Business Class High Speed Data
   Monthly Cost

   Premier 529.95
   (Includes modem/router & 5 static IP addresses, supports unlimited users, VPN’s, downloads up to 15 Mbps and uploads up to 2 Mbps)

   Enterprise 429.95
   (Includes modem/router & 5 static IP addresses, supports unlimited users, VPN’s, downloads up to 10 Mbps and uploads up to 1.5 Mbps)

   “T” 399.95
   (Includes modem/ router & 1 static IP address, supports unlimited users, VPN’s, downloads up to 1.5 Mbps and uploads up to 1.5 Mbps)

   SOHO 159.95
   (Includes modem/router & 1 static IP address, supports unlimited users, VPN’s, downloads up to 10 Mbps and uploads up to 768 Kbps)

   Pro 109.95
   (Includes modem, dynamic IP address, downloads up to 10 MB and uploads up to 384 KB per second)

   Business Class Wideband Internet

   20Mbps x 2 Mbps 199.95
   (Includes modem/router & 5 static IP address)

   50Mbps x 5 Mbps 289.95
   (Includes modem/router & 5 static IP address)

3. adam mickiewitch Says:
   

   September 25th, 2009 at 8:44 am

   it is not to little since in Japan and Korea you could get similar but for much less… to late ? maybe since at the present economical situation people will think twice about that $100,

4. Carol Wilson Says:
   

   September 25th, 2009 at 9:30 am

   Some readers- and the Time Warner PR folks - got on me, justifiably, for failing to report that the $100 service is for consumers, and that business-level service is much more expensive. Mea culpa.

   Business service is going to be more expensive because of the multiple IP addresses required, the different kind of equipment, etc. As business pricing goes, this isn’t bad. But most SMB services now also offer managed and hosted options, which isn’t reflected here.

5. Jeff Lasman Says:
   

   September 26th, 2009 at 10:30 am

   The real reason business class is more expensive is NOT the number of IP#s required at all; Companies as large as TW pay well under $1 per YEAR per IP#.

   To some extent it may be the equipment, perhaps $50 vs $100, but not more unless TW chooses to buy from a high-end company.

   The real reason is that business users are more likely to use the bandwidth.

   For example, my local cable company, Charter, offers residential 10mbps down/ 1.5 mbps up for approximately $70 per month (I don’t know the exact rate because I have it as part of a bundle). The only time I ever use the upload speed is when I’m uploading an ISO (CD-ROM, DVD or BluRay image), and I’ve never needed that much download speed (though having it is nice when downloading ISOs, or watching television or movies online).

   And I’m a professional; our company supplies webhosting to webhosting companies (from our datacenter facilities where we have OC3 connectivity).

   Would I pay $100/month for 50/5? Perhaps; it’s only $30 more per month; that’s less than one dinner out.

   But I’d think about it; it wouldn’t be an automatic decision.

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