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"This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily the only ones, to the mysteries we will examine."
Space aliens. Bigfoot. Amelia Earhart. Road Runner Lite.
Wait.
Road Runner Lite? The “mini-me” of broadband? The perfect value plan for consumers who just need to check their e-mail and browse web pages?
Yes. That Road Runner Lite.
I thought you heard of it.
Leonard Nimoy examines how you can pay less for Internet right now!
A lot of people have heard rumors about it, but for those in western New York, ferreting it out becomes a monumental event. An all-nighter. A mystery that Leonard Nimoy and an entire In Search Of… production team couldn’t easily solve.
StoptheCap! reader Meghan wasted spent her morning on a quest to find the elusive “Road Runner Lite,” if only to suggest it to the occasional person out there who is upset because they feel they’re spending too much on their Internet service now.
If she had this much trouble, imagine that casual browser and e-mail reader! Calling doesn’t guarantee you’ll get instant information either.
The adventure turned out to be so ponderous, we were thinking of creating a PDF for you to enjoy at your leisure. You could print it out and waste an entire ink cartridge, take it in the bathroom, read it before going to bed, and then use it for the bottom of a bird cage. But then that would mean another 15 minutes of our life and yours we’d never get back. Our thanks to Meghan, who sacrificed everything just to help others go bird watching, starting below the fold.
Leonard may still be looking for extraterrestrials, but our crack team has managed to find an option for those that might be co-opted into the Time Warner Re-Education campaign today to pay out of this world prices for broadband service tomorrow.
In Search Of… Road Runner Lite
by: Meghan, An Exasperated StoptheCap! Reader Who Now Appreciates the Amount of Work I Have to Do to Write Articles Here
A lot of people do not seem to know about Road Runner Lite and other pricing options available from Time Warner Cable. Time Warner only advertises their Standard and Turbo services. I went to their website to see why people were not aware of their options. I’m a very visual person, so this is full of screenshots to illustrate my point. Please note that this search was from the Time Warner Cable Rochester homepage.
From there, I did a basic search clicking on all of the links saying “high-speed online” and “Road Runner.” They take you to the Road Runner Page [images are clickable to enlarge and “enjoy”]:
Looking at the menu on the left, you can see several different options comparing Road Runner to other options, but there is no apparent link that explains their speeds and services. The menu on the Carolinas page however, (TM posted the link in the comments section of a StoptheCap! article) has additional links to help their customers more easily access plan information and options. See the screenshot below. I’ve highlighted the important links that are missing/hidden on the Rochester page. Note the links “Speed Levels” and “Speed Test:”
So how do you find the exact same information on the Rochester Site? It’s not available as a menu item. I had to dig around, but I found the link.
You will notice the link “Home Networking.” Honestly, how many of us would think to click on this link? Networking assumes the idea of connecting multiple computers and/or devices. Certainly not a link a Lite user would click on!
Hidden under this link is the section that provides another link to help you decide what speed would be good for your situation. So two links later, we can access the same information that the Carolinas could right from the outset. So if you proceed to click on the “Go to Road Runner Speed Levels” you can finally see for the first time all of your options and how they might be used. Road Runner offers: Lite, Basic, Standard, and Turbo.
According to their site, Road Runner Lite is only good for three things: E-mailing, surfing the web, and online banking. Also note, according to their website, the only service to work for multiple users is Turbo. Having had the Standard service in my apartment with four roommates who enjoy their share of online games and iTunes, I can say that Standard was quite sufficient for our needs. Despite this page being called “Speed Pricing,” there is no actual information regarding speed or price. To find this information we have to click on the “Buy Now” link at the bottom or click on the Shop link. Doing so takes us to this registry page:
Now, to find out actual information we have to register. (Note that existing users can only “add Services”). After signing up as a new customer using my old apartment address, I am brought to the ordering screen. (Despite whichever Buy Now link you click on whether for Turbo or Lite you will be brought to this page.)
Next you will see a list of bundled packages including Road Runner Turbo or Standard with telephone and television. At the very bottom of this is a blue plus sign with the phrase “Configure Your Own Services” next to it. You have the click on the sign to expand you options (as seen below)
Now the customer has only the option to choose Road Runner High Speed Online with the Standard plan. For the first time, we see a price listed, but I still want to find out about Road Runner Lite. In the upper right hand side of the page is a Helpful Hints menu that asks “Are there any faster internet speeds to order?” Seeing this link, I click on it hoping it will give me an option to choose the lower speed Road Runner Lite. When I click on the pop-up window appears and tells me that I can upgrade when I continue with my order.
So I continue, despite having chosen something I’m not interested in. I’m hoping I will finally get some information and the option to choose Road Runner Lite by following the link. The link takes me to the Configure Services page.
Again, I am disappointed. I am allowed to choose my Speed and Options, but my only options are Road Runner Stand or upgrading to Road Runner Turbo. There is no choice for Lite or Basic.
I am still hoping that I might be able to information on Road Runner Lite when I click on the Comparison Chart Link.
After numerous screens and digging, I finally found some numbers on speed and information on Road Runner Lite. Is it helpful? Not really. I still don’t know the price. And most of all, I can’t seem to order Road Runner Lite through their website. I’ve highlighted the bottom portion of the chart which says “All Services may not be available in all areas.”
So after all I went through to find Road Runner Lite, it might not even be available in my area? How can that be? I currently get Turbo. Certainly if I can get Turbo, I know the “Tubes” are quite capable of providing Lite.
I would really like to know the availability of Lite in Rochester. I wish there was a map like the phone companies have of their service areas. I’d also like to see TWC Rochester improve their website and make their plans and prices more visible.
The most important thing I learned through my little adventure is that finding information about Road Runner Lite is pretty difficult on the Rochester page. You really have to dig. And then once you find it, you still are not able to order it!
Hey Time Warner! It’s called the Information Superhighway for a reason! How super would it be if it were capped or somehow limited?! Not very!
NO CAPS! NO CAPS NOW! NO CAPS EVER! NEVER SURRENDER!!! Yarghhhh
Just watch. As soon as the caps are implemented… TWC will pay content providers a visit and tell them that for $$$$, their bandwidth will not count against the cap. Just watch. It’s an attempted end-run on net neutrality.
Al Gore’s probably rolling in his grave.
LOL.
I love how the standard service says ” Up to 1 Mbps “. Not in this town. 384k is it.
I love it how they say that 768kbps service isn’t good for gaming. For a matter of fact, my Verizon DSL Line before it got boosted ran at 768kbps/128kbps on Fast Packet mode. It did great for gaming even when the download was maxed, and performed ok when both download and upload were maxed. I seriously think they’re trying to push on gamers since either they assume gamers are 1: Impatient, or 2: Loaded with money. Quite frankly, if you’re a dedicated gamer and you have to troubleshoot things, a download is certainly less taxing on someone’s patience than having… Read more »
Got the mail today and something I did not expect a letter from Frontier. It was thick and when you opened it up it turned into a 2 foot by 3 foot double sided ad. Nice color, High quality paper. I don’t want to think how much it cost to print and mail tens of thousands of that. I think you are going to be getting mail from these two most everyday now as they do battle. I do hope Verizon sends a mail back to us. If we were there what would I do? Much of that depends on… Read more »
I got that in the mail yesterday. It has already been recycled because if I switch to DSL it is not going to include phone or TV service or the free laptop that they are offering. But it was a pretty slick ad and yes, must have cost them some bucks to get them printed and mailed.
The Time Warner KC website is just as bad. Every time I think I have found a link on their site to be able to purchase what I want, I end up at their ‘bundle” page. No options to choose less, only more, more, more!
In all fairness, the Frontier site offers little in the way of information also.
Just checked TW Central Texas. RR Lite is there, but one cannot purchase it. One can get RR Basic for $34.99, but it looks like one has to call in to get RR Lite.
And while I was at it, I noticed their blasted surf & watch is $30 cheaper than what I’m paying now. Gonna have to call them to figure out why.
Not a happy camper now…
Would it be feasible for us to band together and purchase enough TWC stock to vote out the current executives?
You know sunflower im not sure what I have. Its not turbo but I pay about $40 a month for what I do have. Its speed is ok but nothing to write home about and service is top notch.
If you go to http://www.speedtest.net, you’ll get an idea of what your speed is. Make sure you’re using a direct connection to your computer & modem. Not wireless. I’m supposed to get 7mpbs/512kpbs, but I’m lucky to get 6mpbs/380kpbs. That’s closer to the basic package (5mpbs/384kpbs).
If you have the surf & watch, I’m sure you have the standard.
And, for more insult to injury, I just noticed they don’t offer anything higher than standard in my area for online purchase. I have to call THAT in too.
*walks away grumbling, again*
I have a question. I looked at TWC’s financials per Google Finance, and I curiously found a lot of negative numbers. Net profit margin was -185% the last quarter, -42% in 2008, net income was -7,344.00 in 2008, etc. Am I missing something here? Are they really doing as bad as these numbers suggest?
http://www.google.com/finance?q=twc
The profits from their video (cable tv, on-demand, etc.) division have been decreasing. That is why their profit margin was negative.
The broadband section is doing quite well. Their profit, number of subscribers, and market penetration have all been increasing. At the same time, the net cost of maintaining their broadband network has been decreasing.
Their next investor statement should be coming out the end of this month.
TWC split from Time Warner recently and has spun into its own entity. It is saddled with the moneypit that is AOL, and also the disaster economy, which is causing people to cut back on video programming services. I’ll bet the broadband tier doesn’t do as badly.
Ah, okay. Thanks for clearing that up.
Richard you forgot the hard copy TW owns as well AOL. Who ever thought of bying that should have been taken into the back parking lot and hung. Some of these super people are really stupid. As I understand some of the movies from pay per view are $10 to $12 each. Im not spending that much to watch a stupid movie unless it comes with a huge bucket of popcorn and there are so many other options for the same thing out there. They need to get that fact in their tin foiled heads.
Back in the day, TW didn’t advertise the “Lite” service on their site or in ads in my area, Charlotte NC. You had to ask a person over the phone for it. Now they do advertise it on their site I noticed though that must of been a recent development, like sometime last year. Also, another thing they usually don’t advertise anywhere on their site or in ads, is that you can get their “standard” cable service instead of paying the extra for “digital”. If they were so concerned about running out of bandwidth, it would seem they would be… Read more »
I understand why TWC has a vested interest in playing up their more expensive options, but it’s pretty ridiculous you can’t even get info on the cheap option you know to exist. I’ve had several extended family members over the years use sub-basic cable (pretty much just local channels) for years, and I bet that option isn’t widely advertised either. However the scary thing is that if TWC is hiding its low-speed usage tier that’s reserved for the people who don’t use much bandwidth at all–you know, the somewhat mythical segment that will save money on tiered caps–then it’s likely… Read more »
I began my home internet connection via dial-up using “Free ISPs” (I’m an admin at http://www.freedomlist.com/ which started in 2000 providing information on free ISPs). I spent eight years on dial-up, managing to administer not only Freedomlist but a number of other on-line help sites and respond to thousands of help topics in various forums. Accompanying our cable bill last year was an offer for Road Runner Lite. Like Meghan, I spent a considerable amount of time attempting to locate information on RR Lite. About the only thing I recall locating was at DSL Reports and the information was sketchy.… Read more »
I found out how you can get the Lite service – just buy into one of TW’s “low cost” advertised triple-play bundles! I wrote a blog post last year where I mentioned that when I called Time Warner to ask about upgrading my service to include Home Phone, the rate they quoted me was substantially more than the $99/mo advertised. When I asked why, they said the advertised rate included the slowest speed Roadrunner service, a downgrade from what I already had. They priced themselves right out of getting any more of my business, as I found another VOIP provider… Read more »