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Carol Hevey, executive vice president of operations for TWC’s Carolinas region.
Stop the Cap!‘s strong readership in the Triad region of North Carolina comes from their experience with Time Warner Cable’s Internet Overcharging experiment this past April. For residents in greater Greensboro and surrounding communities, now you get a chance to be pioneers of a different sort.
Time Warner Cable today announced Greensboro, Raleigh, and Charlotte, all in North Carolina, among the first in the nation able to purchase Road Runner Mobile, a new 4G wireless mobile broadband service designed to accompany your existing Road Runner subscription.
On December 1st, Time Warner Cable customers can sign up for the service, providing speeds up to 6Mbps, starting at $34.95 per month, if you are on a Price Lock Guarantee (a service commitment requiring you to remain with Time Warner Cable in return for service discounts) and subscribe to a bundle of services. That low priced option has a usage allowance of 2 gigabytes per month.
Time Warner Cable's Carolinas region service area
“With Time Warner Cable’s 4G Mobile Network, we now offer the fastest mobile service available and extend our reach outside the home.” said Carol Hevey, Executive Vice President of the Carolina Region for Time Warner Cable. “Giving our customers the convenience of mobility and the speed of 4G, Road Runner Mobile lets customers take their favorite Internet service wherever they go. This is an important part of our strategy to give our customers any content, on any device, anytime, anywhere.”
Time Warner Cable is using the Clearwire WiMax network to provide the service, a benefit it gained along with Comcast when they became part-owners of the Sprint-Clearwire venture.
Pricing will vary depending on the level of service customers need:
- Road Runner Mobile 4G National Elite gives unlimited access to both Time Warner Cable’s 4G Mobile Network and a national 3G network (Sprint, presumably), for use when traveling.
o $79.95 per month for Road Runner Standard or Turbo customers.
o Further discounts for Double and Triple play customers and those on a Price Lock Guarantee. - Road Runner Mobile 4G Elite gives customers unlimited access to the Time Warner Cable 4G Mobile Network.
o $49.95 per month for Road Runner Standard or Turbo customers.
o Further discounts for Double and Triple play customers and those on a Price Lock Guarantee. - Road Runner Mobile 4G Choice gives light users 2GB of service on the Time Warner Cable 4G network each month.
o Available for $39.95 per month to customers of at least one other Time Warner Cable service. Additional $5 off if you have a Price Lock Guarantee and bundled service package.
Time Warner Cable plans to launch additional mobile services to customers in the future such as the ability to program a DVR from a mobile device and the ability to take their video content with them on the go. Time Warner Cable will be expanding its 4G Mobile network to additional service areas over the next few months including Dallas, TX and Honolulu and Maui, HI.
Customer experiences with the Clearwire network have been decidedly mixed. In Portland, uneven signal coverage has plagued service and fueled customer returns. In Greensboro, some who have tested the Clearwire-branded version of the service report earlier speeds close to 5Mbps that have since slowed to below 2Mbps.
As with any wireless mobile service, inquire about trial options and cancellation policies before signing any contract. Consumers should always verify service is available to them at tolerable speeds before committing to any contract.
Doesn’t seem like a good deal, we’ll likely stickto Clearwire at work I think.
Clearwire is a spin off of Time Warner and Comcast.
Wow, 2GB! They really splurged on that one by doubling what anyone would ever want to use.
Oh, and 640Kb is more than enough RAM for anyone. Plus, no one will ever want a computer in their home because they’re as big as a washer now and will only double in size as time goes on.
…perhaps you can see where I’m going with this…
As long as they offer an unlimited plan with no hidden monthly usage allowances, I am all for it. That way the light usage people can “save money” with the $40 plan and the heavy usage people can get what they want as well.
Of course, I’ll bet “unlimited” turns out to be 5GB. 🙂 It’s amazing how universal “unlimited” is in wireless broadband. I was contemplating giving Cricket a shot for some occasional on-the-go broadband, because it’s more affordable than this. Almost pulled the trigger until the USB modem I noted wasn’t “free after rebate” any longer (the bulkier one still is). I’ll wait awhile and see how things develop. Since they throw in the first month for free, it’s not a high dollar risk to give it a shot. I had the unlimited (truly) MediaNet from AT&T back when they had the… Read more »
From Time Warner Carolina’s website http://www.timewarnercable.com/carolinas/learn/mobile/guide.html Pick a Mobile Card You can choose from a variety of Road Runner Mobile Cards to fit your 4G or 4G national plan. See below to for a list of cards. For Local and National Use: Franklin CMU-300 * 4G Mobile and 3G National access * $199 or $99 with 2-year contract * Connection Type: USB For Local Use: Motorola USBw100 * 4G Mobile access * $99 or free with 2-year contract * Connection Type: USB Also in the fine print we find out about at $35 activation fee. The full fine print: Some… Read more »
Clearwire system can NOT provide those speeds in the Greensboro area. The system could not handle it, not to mention all the function disable through port blocking on the Clearwire networks. Bad enough so many people get into accidents while texting and driving as it is, they want to make it faster to get responses around here so people look at mobile computers more often than on the road? This will do nothing, and only in the exact areas might provide some service, but the satelite being the only competition for TWC for many things, and the large numbers of… Read more »
Well, I can’t blame them. That is not what the network was designed for. All wireless internet access companies have designed their networks for roaming web access at this point. Running servers on a wireless network is just not there, and really, I would never even think about a solution such as that while there are wired alternatives.
Signal may be an issue, but as long as standard things like web browsing, e-mail, small video (think youtube) work when there is a signal, then there really is not much to complain about exept the technology.