SubscribeIn a morning conference call with Time Warner Cable executives and investors, Time Warner Cable announced that the Powerboost technology upgrade will be provided to all Road Runner customers at no additional charge in the coming weeks. Powerboost formerly was available in most markets only to customers on the Turbo tier.
Powerboost provides a temporary speed boost to downloads on the Time Warner Cable broadband service, usually around 16Mbps, according to Time Warner officials.
Company officials also announced the only market where DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades are currently scheduled is New York City. All other markets will eventually see upgrades announced in the coming years on a market by market basis. Company officials downplayed the importance of the upgrade, saying they had not seen much demand for increased speed. This diverges significantly from the company line that usage caps and tiered pricing were required to prevent “Internet brownouts” and to race additional funds to complete “necessary upgrades.”
Complete coverage on this story and its impact on metered pricing can be found on StoptheCap!
Time Warner officials announcing Powerboost to be made available to Road Runner Standard subscribers (0:23 minutes)
You can download the clip and listen later.
Sadly this ploy will likely soften TW’s historic stupidity in some people’s eyes…
I’ve noticed my ping-time has decreased recently from ~44ms to ~25-30ms… I check it regularly in case of lag. /sighs. I’m still irked at them. Only way Time Warner Cable will get my trust back is if they put, in writing, that they will do away with caps now and forever. As it is, I’m still ready to leap off TWC at a moment’s notice.
Ah powerboost so I can hit the caps that are coming even faster!
No kidding. Give something for free to everyone, and those paying for it are probably stuck with their current increased price for something extra they no longer have over other people, and in the long run when they put out caps, then you will in fact hit the faster. I wonder if anyone thought about the fact that increasing the speed may prevent congestion? I mean if one person is downloading a 2 gig video from CBS.com or something and having to take longer to get it the lines will see that over a longer period of time, but the… Read more »
So do I get a Turbo refund? Can u provide printed proof they did this so when I complain, I have something to back it up? Thanks!
I need to get my powerboost cancelled… It only comes in handy when I upload to my friends servers or xfer to work… but I use it lots of times… An official link would be nice… 🙂
Powerboost? I really don’t care too much whether it’s implemented or not. If it doesn’t increase my speed throughout a download, but only at the beginning, I don’t see the point.
These reports were based on audio from this morning’s investor conference call. I am working on posting some audio clips, which is good as it’s going to get I’m afraid.
Also, Powerboost is a gimmick. Turbo tier customers also get extra upload and download speed that remains persistent, unlike Powerboost.
I just got off online chat with TW support and they told me I am no being charged for powerboost…
“> You were charged for the Roadrunner Turbo service.”
“>You were not charged for the Powerboost service.”
more info…..
“> From March 25, 2009, it is available to Road Runner Standard customers. Existing customers must reset their modem or wait for the 30-day modem reboot to receive the new speed.”
Powerboost is never charged for as a standalone item.
Formerly, it accompanied the Turbo tier (which you pay usually around $10 a month extra for each month). Now, it will be a part of all tiers. Nobody was charged specifically for Powerboost – it just wasn’t available to standard customers before.
All tiers? I doubt it will be available for RR Lite customers but we’ll see. It would help give a jump-start on security updates anyway. 🙂
I have cleared this up. You are right. It is an expansion for standard service customers. Lite customers will probably not see it.
Are there really that many lite users anyways? I think most of us have seen how difficult TW makes it for users to find information regarding lite, almost as if to limit people from asking about it, at least those that would want it.
Powerboost is a joke. When I was with TWC, all it did was boost my download speed for 3 seconds, whoopteedo.
I agree that Powerboost is a joke and just a gimmick that we do not need. What we need is good, reliable, uncapped service and more upload speed ! 384 kb/sec on the upload is ridiculous. I can live with a steady 10 meg down uncapped service just fine, thank you. Would be awfully nice if the local TW boys could give us standard tier users at least 1 meg on the upload speed.
@Jeremy. At two separate times, we received information either with our bill or a promotional mailing from TWC that included RR Lite. When we received the first offer, I wasn’t in a position to move to it but was able to go with the second offer last year.
Pretty sure that this has in fact been stopped. I do not see the gains I saw last week. What a nice little promo they ran here…Now back to watch commercials for the $4.95 upgrade gimmick. :rolleyes:
Powerboost on standard service is still on in Rochester. I speed tested this morning.