Just because Texas tends to be rather rural doesn’t mean that folks are Luddites. Again, I’m pretty sure that central Texas (San Antonio and Austin) have the most competitive non-D3 packages out there price-wise for TWC, outside of maybe NYC. Verizon wouldn’t have deployed FiOS in Dallas if they ddn’t have a market for it

Again, services offered in a given area tend to be based first on the company in question and second on the competition that company is facing. Here in the Denver metro you’ve got Comcast and Qwest. Qwest tends to pick up the low end of the market because they still don’t have ADSL2+ or VDSL2 deployed over much of their footprint. As such, you may well end up with a maximum of 3-7 Mbps service for $47 per month if you choose them, though they have promotional offers that will net you dry-line 1.5 Mbps DSL for $30.

Comcast doesn’t seem to aim at the low-end internet-only market in any of its footprint; 1 Mbps down, 384 kbps up is $35. The next tier up is $55, and things go up from there. 16/2 service here (DOCSIS 3 area) is $65 per month, versus $50 in TWC territory back in Texas (San Antonio and the hill country, not just Austin). Plus Comcast makes you pay for modem rental, something TWC doesn’t do. On the other hand, I can get DCSIS 3 service with 5 or 10 Mbps up with Comcast, something you can’t do with TWC.

So, comparing the two largest cable companies in the US, it seems like TWC prices themselves lower and Comcast prices themselves higher, though (depending on the market) TWC’s services fall short of what Comcast offers, particularly on the upload speed side. On the other hand, Time Warner Cable’s $35 tier in central Texas is 3 Mbps down, 384 kbps up, triple the download speed of Comcast’s equivalently-priced tier, so I guess TWC (with its maximum Turbo price…anywhere…set at around $60) is aiming lower market-wise than Comcast is.

Embarq is also experimenting with line bonding, which should net customers 1.5 Mbps uploads and 20 Mbps downloads eventually. They also have fiber in new developments, though the don’t offer tiers above 10 Mbps.

That may explain why the mass exodus from our area’s high taxes takes a large percentage of our residents straight to NC. The taxes are much lower there than here. One thing residents don’t get to escape is… Time Warner Cable.

I believe you guys have Embarq (soon to be CenturyTel) scattered around down there. If so, you’re stuck with your own version of Frontier. If you have AT&T, they are going to work their way towards U-verse, and that should stimulate speed progress there.

Frontier will increasingly become a complete non-player in upgraded TWC markets, although there are people out there who honestly have no idea there is a major difference between 3Mbps service and 15Mbps service. They see the Internet as just something to connect to, and do not understand the implications of different broadband speeds. When their service is slow, they will equate that with the “Internet being slow,” not their respective provider.

I always have to remember that among the masses, there are significant pockets of people who really do not even understand broadband speeds, much less what a gigabyte is.

Usually a more knowledgeable relative will give guidance and advice, and will provoke a switch if they visit and discover lousy service when they try and use the Internet.

Rochester’s pricing also accounts for local market conditions. This is a city that is used to paying lower prices for telecommunications services (in part because the enormous taxes that always seem to accompany them boost the out the door price anyway).

I don’t see too many people ever complain about Road Runner’s pricing, which has remained stable and has a strong subscriber base here with loyal customers who have never switched.

The upload speed on standard service is way too slow, and is comparable for a more rural market. Part of the reason may be to prevent upload congestion from slowing down the rest of the network. Turbo alleviated the upload issue somewhat, and is frankly a useful addition only for the upload speed increase (going from 10Mbps to 15Mbps is not that big of a difference for most people, but 384kbps to 1Mbps is).

Rochester should be providing 10/1 for standard service and 15/2 for Turbo. The DOCSIS 3 upgrade would provide room for a 25/3 and 50/5-type tier. At this point, all I am interested in personally is better upload speed, because uploading content for this site and the other stuff I do is painfully slow even at 1Mbps.

My personal guess is that we’re going to continue to see mergers between the remaining independent telcos until there are one or two left. The largest non-Baby Bell players: Windstream, Frontier, TDS, and CenturyTel will probably end up being just two when it’s all over.

I suspect CenturyTel and Frontier will most likely be the two remaining players, with Frontier eating up Windstream and CenturyTel absorbing TDS. FairPoint is a dead company walking.

Local government really has little influence over TWC. I think calling them out helps us build a case politically that out on the blatantly obvious fact this is more evidence that:

a) their consumption billing experiment chose Rochester because of the inherently uncompetitive marketplace here, giving them little risk and exposure from the consequences of customers leaving for the competition;

b) the competitive environment, not individual subscriber needs, dictates service improvements. Rochester is decidedly more high tech than Buffalo and slightly better than Syracuse as well. Albany isn’t even in the running. But we’re bypassed, because FiOS is not breathing down their necks here. What subscribers want is really not given much consideration. But we knew that when they tried their experiment back in April.

Our real problem here is going to increasingly be with Frontier Communications, which I increasingly fear will be preoccupied with an enormous debt load from mergers and acquisitions, and be far more focused on their core business model of serving rural America, and treating local residents like they live there as well.

Just thinking about it, I know that Verizon is wiring up Amherst and East Amherst, as well as finishing up areas like Tonawanda so they’re pretty much building out right around Buffalo. They started from Orchard Park. That’s probably the main reason why Time Warner also choose Buffalo to get DOCSIS 3.0, as Buffalo has FiOS all over the place and they’ve lost many people within the last year, and if not that, at least 3Mbps/768kbps DSL to deal with (mainly on the upload side which I’m sure is why Time Warner offers higher upload in the area).

So pricing on internet in your area seems to be perfectly fine, and speeds are okay on the download, though I agree that higher upload speeds and a higher-end top tier are needed in this day and age.

Promotional pricing is $29.95 for a year of standard, $4.95 for a year of Turbo, assuming you are a new customer or on some sort of retention deal.

By the way, went down to the Henrietta office recently to help a roommate of mine. He wanted his own box, bringing the total number of boxes up to 2 for the house. The blonde woman behind the counter was the nastiest piece of work, in terms of attitude. I think I’ll stick to service over the phone if that’s how they treat people down there.

Everything with her was an issue. If I wanted treatment of that sort, I’d just as soon go to the DMV. She wasn’t wearing a nametag, or I’d've noted her name and reported her to her boss. Unfortunately, our polite request for a manager was met with an eyeroll and a, “HE’S NOT HERE RIGHT NOW.” No name given. I hope she’s reading this.

But back to the point, yes, we’re being punished for refusing the caps. I’ve been getting intermittent network blackouts for no reason. One day was particularly bad, and they blamed it on my router (which I purchased elsewhere *GASP*). Funnily enough, the issue was on the modem when I plugged my PC in directly to the modem. Yet…the issue was still blamed on the router by the rep on the phone. /facepalm.

Seriously. If we ever get a serious competitor, I’m out of Time Warner faster than you can say “BEEP!”

Seems like a fiber provider could come in with relatively low speeds and blow the market wide open.

Example:
6/1 – $40 residential, $80 business
12/2 – $50 residential, $150 business
20/3 – $60 residential, $220 business
30/5 – $80 residential, $350 business

Of course I’m looking at this from a business perspective. As a customer of course I’d love faster speeds (especially on uploads) and lower prices, but the above speeds would be plenty profitable if a fiber provider went in and had them.

Download speeds actually look decent on both tiers, all things considered. Uploads suck though.