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Advertisements for Road Runner Extreme, Time Warner Cable’s DOCSIS 3 “wideband” service, began running in Rochester, N.Y., this week despite the fact Time Warner Cable has no intention of providing the service in the area anytime soon.
The ad offers Road Runner subscribers the chance to obtain 30/5 Mbps service “for just $20 more per month” and invites viewers to “call now to order.”
So that’s what we did.
Time Warner Cable representatives in Buffalo confirmed the service is not available in Rochester, but figured if they were advertising it here it must be coming soon. Even they were surprised with the answer they got ‘from upstairs’ when inquiring further.
“No, it’s not coming to Rochester anytime soon,” we were told.
We asked if there was any timetable to bring DOCSIS 3 upgrades to the area. The response was both illuminating and candid:
“I wouldn’t hold your breath. We’ve had some issues in the Rochester area and, for now, we feel comfortable offering the service only in the Buffalo area in western New York.”
When we asked why the company was now heavily advertising a product on Rochester TV screens that isn’t available here, we were told Time Warner Cable was increasingly consolidating its operations in western New York through its Buffalo office, which is where “most customer service” and “local advertising you see on cable channels” is now originating. Since Road Runner Extreme is available in Buffalo, Rochester viewers are accidental witnesses to a service intended for residents of The City of Good Neighbors.
So what are “the issues” in the Rochester area?
Time Warner Cable bypassed Rochester for promised upgrades after the defeat of their proposed Internet Overcharging plan, which would have tripled broadband prices for an equivalent level of service. Consumer outrage and political headaches combined to kill the experiment.
Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable isn’t compelled to hurry DOCSIS 3 into an area underserved by Frontier Communication’s slow speed DSL service. Neighboring communities in Buffalo and Syracuse have access to Verizon’s fiber-to-the-home service FiOS, which has driven Time Warner to enhance services in both communities to avoid losing customers.
Despite the slow pace of upgrades, Time Warner Cable previously stated it intended to upgrade a significant number of its cable systems to DOCSIS 3 technology by the end of the year. So it will eventually reach the area. As Time Warner Cable recommends… just don’t hold your breath.
http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Time Warner Cable at the NYS Fair.flv
The closest residents of the Flower City will get to Road Runner Extreme is at the New York State Fair in Syracuse, at the Time Warner Cable booth. (Their advertised ‘celebrity’ is Mike O’Malley. Who???) (1 minute)
Other stories of interest:
- Time Warner Cable Increasing Road Runner Pricing in Rochester for Standalone Customers – $54.95 a Month
- Syracuse Gets Road Runner Speed Boost — Rochester Wallows in Broadband Backwater
- [Update 2] Time Warner Cable: Major Road Runner/Digital Phone Outage in Northeastern U.S.
- Time Warner Cable Increasing Road Runner Turbo Speed In South Texas
- Triad Region: Time Warner Cable Introduces Road Runner Mobile WiMax on December 1st
How do you forget “Guts”?
Do you have it?
Their website is a bit odd too when you look up the service tiers, I’m pretty sure all of the information applies to Buffalo, but it’s hard to guess which parts apply to Rochester. For instance, the site claims Earthlink offers three speed tiers in Rochester, Earthlink says otherwise.
I would be *shocked* if we got Extreme before 2012, and I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if 2015 rolled around and we either had caps or were still stuck at 15/1. TW is mad at us for rejecting caps and shining the spotlight on the whole scheme. They won’t upgrade unless they’re forced to by competition (Hah!) or the government (not bloody likely).
They shouldn’t even advertise the current Turbo service, the new modems they’re distributing (made by ubee, formerly Ambit) can’t actually handle the load. At first I thought it was just me (went through 2 modems before buying my own) but it turns out some of my friends had the same problem when they got new service. Good way to prevent “overuse” – distribute low quality modems that can’t go above the speed you want people using, even if they’re paying for more. I’ve been using my new modem (Motorola) for months without issue, at least the local support people agreed that the problem was definitely the modem.
“They shouldn’t even advertise the current Turbo service, the new modems they’re distributing (made by ubee, formerly Ambit) can’t actually handle the load. At first I thought it was just me (went through 2 modems before buying my own) but it turns out some of my friends had the same problem when they got new service. Good way to prevent “overuse” – distribute low quality modems that can’t go above the speed you want people using, even if they’re paying for more. I’ve been using my new modem (Motorola) for months without issue, at least the local support people agreed that the problem was definitely the modem.”
You know something? This actually sounds similar to what they tried to pull with me when I moved into a new apt back in august. The apartment complex that I was moving into got a new deal with TWC to offer cable and internet as part of our rents, so what they actually did to do internet was they shoved a crappy ubee/ambit router/modem inside a box inside my laundry room and expected me to just used wifi but I wasn’t having that (the wifi router is awful you can’t even change the settings or anything so I went in under a dif account than user/user and disabled all of the router things and use my own router with the modem part still on because that part functioned fine. I honestly think they did this so I wouldn’t use more of the speed but I gave them the last laugh and have been enjoying it at the speed I should be.
I also moved the modem to be next to my computer so I could actually get to it , had to split the cable line in my bedroom though. Really was half-assed what they went and did.
Hey I wouldn’t get bent out of shape over this. Just found out that they offer 50/5 in my area but I would have to pay $180/mo for it, which includes the TV/Internet/Phone. You can’t get it otherwise as a stand alone product as the sales rep said. Too much for me, I guess I will have to stick with AT&T Uverse since Time Warner seem that they don’t want to compete with AT&T over speeds.
That’s awful, $180 is far too much for that level of service. With the new penalty pricing in Rochester, standalone RoadRunner is $50, plus $10 for Turbo. The advertising would seem to imply that Extreme would be $20 more than standard, or $70 for standalone 30/5 service. I’d gladly pay $100 for it, but not more than that.
Forced bundling like you’re describing ought to be illegal.
Standalone RoadRunner actually just jumped to $55/month in rochester.
I asked if they had a lower tier plan like 20/5 and the guy said nope. All they offer is a straight 50/5. I have friends on Comcast with 20/5 lines and pay around $60/month I think. Now that would be reasonable for me.I could care less about the download speed but the 5Mbps upload would be a welcome sigh of relief for my FTP site and for other general uploading like family photos and videos.
Hmm – interestingly enough, my 15/2 Time Warner connection here in Austin maxes out at about 20. Faster than advertised.
Unfortunately, the upstream maxes out at about 1.2…
I can get Wideband in my area since I am a part of the Buffalo division. Only thing is, in order for it to be more appealing to me they would need to compete against FiOS for upload speed, something I’m really looking for in a future Internet connection to replace my DSL lines.
This brings up another interesting issue. If Time Warner is “centralizing” in Buffalo, does this mean that Time Warner’s service in Rochester will gradually decay as the Buffalo office ignores us?
If Time Warner is so angry at us for rejecting caps, why don’t they just sell the Rochester market to another cable company? Then they can focus on their preferred markets.
Nah, they would never sell Rochester off. They have a captive audience here since Frontier’s service is so crappy.
Look now Time warner offers RR Extreme. Looks like they were gonna bring it in huh. Installation is on Friday!