SubscribeGreater Austin, a city served by up to four different broadband providers — three either offering or promising fiber to the home service — is getting a speed upgrade from the one company that is sticking with its fiber-coax network — Time Warner Cable.
Starting June 3, Time Warner Cable customers who receive letters regarding the upgrade will see major broadband speed boosts at no additional charge:
Austin: Keeping the good broadband all to themselves. (Image courtesy: Kong)
The upgraded speeds will be offered to approximately 40 percent of customers in Austin and surrounding communities in June, with the remaining customers in the area getting upgraded through early fall. Here is the upgrade schedule:
June Speed Upgrade: Downtown Austin, West Campus, Hyde Park, Clarksville, Old Enfield, North Loop, Terrytown, Highland Park West, Central East Austin, Windsor Hills, Copperfield, Springdale Heights, Harris Branch, Edinburgh Gardens, Rollingwood, West Lake Hills, Lost Creek, Barton Creek, Jollyville, Anderson Mill, Brushy Creek, Bull Creek Park, Steiner Ranch, River Place, Canyon Creek, and the Reserve at Twin Peaks, as well as these communities: Manor, Cedar Park, Jonestown, Bee Cave, Kyle, Mountain City, and Uhland.
Fall Speed Upgrade: Round Rock, Leander, San Marcos, Elgin, Marble Falls, Lockhart, Bastrop, Fredericksburg, Taylor, Smithville, Wimberley, Liberty Hill, Lago Vista, Buda, Kyle, Elroy, and Lakeway.
“These significant speed increases will allow all our Internet customers in the greater Austin area to enjoy TWC Internet better,” said Kathy Brabson, area vice president of operations for Time Warner Cable in Central Texas.
Time Warner says it is spending about $60 million to upgrade its Austin-area network. That investment may help the cable company withstand competition from providers like Grande Communications, AT&T, and Google. For most in Austin, Time Warner Cable will be the first provider to dramatically boost Internet speeds. Google Fiber has postponed its launch until this fall, AT&T’s U-verse fiber to the home service is more press release than reality, and Grande Communications, although offering 1,000Mbps service for $65, only has that service available in parts of the greater Austin area.
Some customers will need to upgrade and/or exchange their current cable modem to receive the full speed upgrade. Customers leasing a modem can get information about whether an upgrade is needed from Time Warner’s Speed Increase website. We still strongly recommend customers consider purchasing their own modem — it will pay for itself in no time. Communication to the first group of customers about the new speeds and details about equipment is being delivered to homes this week.
Separately, Time Warner also announced it is expanding its local Wi-Fi hotspot network, but did not share any specific details.
Stop the Cap! will not be surprised to see Kansas City the next upgrade choice for Time Warner Cable — Google Fiber is up, running, and competing there. The rest of us will have to wait up to two years for faster speeds to arrive.
I live in the Hyde Park area and am looking forward to the speed increase!
I am the owner of a Motorola SB6141. According to the approved modem list at http://www.timewarnercable.com/content/dam/residential/pdfs/enjoy/better-twc/bettertwc_approvedmodems.pdf the SB6141 can only support Ultimate 100. I’m currently on the Extreme plan and was under the impression that the SB6141 could support Ultimate 200.
Looks like I’ll find out on June 3rd!
BTW, I wouldn’t be surprised if the speed increase goes up in smoke once Comcast takes over….
The reason the 6141 won’t do the fastest speeds is because TWC is bonding 16 channels together to deliver 200/300Mbps and the 6141 can only bond 8 channels. I’d downgrade to Turbo which is still extremely fast. The only model on the approved list that can handle 200/300Mbps is the Motorola 6183, not even available to the public for sale as of this spring. I found one on eBay for $175, which is outrageous. I think early adopters are going to have to bite the bullet on the modem rental fee for a few months until prices and availability moderate.… Read more »
Thank you for the info Phillip! I’ll downgrade to 100mbps Turbo in June and wait patiently for Google Fiber. I am not investing in another cable modem when Fiber To The Home is right around the corner. 🙂
BTW, earlier this month I used the Twitter method to obtain a 1 year promotional rate of $54.99 for Extreme.
I wonder if I’ll be able to secure the 1 year promo rate of $44.95 for Turbo while the Extreme promo is in effect? I believe in giving TWC/Comcast as little money as possible! 🙂
We haven’t gotten any letters from TW yet, but my friend in Buda TX got one yesterday. They’re only offering up to 100Mbps there, and he’ll need a new modem even though he already has a DOCSIS 3 model. So the title of this story isn’t really “300Mbps upgrades throughout metro Austin” but “Upgrades throughout metro Austin, Token 300Mbps somewhere so we can run with misleading headline” LOL. I don’t live in any of the areas listed for upgrades, which is strange because we’re the first area (apparently) getting Google Fiber. Boo to Google for putting off the upgrade until… Read more »
Buda is not getting the full upgrade until this fall. I’m surprised they are at least boosting some speeds even before that in these communities. His modem is probably a 6121 which only bonds 4 channels I believe.
If previous patterns hold, I’d start trying to reboot the modem once a day after Memorial Day and see if speeds suddenly shoot up. TWC often soft-launches speed upgrades even before the official launch date.
Do I understand this correctly:
— Everyone in the greater Austin area will have/has Four Cable Tv / Internet providers pulling cable (or fiber) to the edge of their property/house?
— Effectively there will be Four complete and independent providers/systems competing for business from home owners ?
If this is the case, that there will be four providers, it will be interesting to track the actual cost to the consumer over time. (read: oligopoly style completion in Austin vs monopoly in other markets (regulated or unregulated))
Austin residents have a choice of only one cable, one DSL* and maybe one fiber provider wherever they are. Fiber is offered only in limited areas. ATT offers DSL throughout the region, without any meaningful competition. TW and Grandecom have the city split in non-overlapping territories for cable. ATT and Google appear to be installing fiber in separate zones within TW’s region, and Grandecom is the only fiber provider in their exclusive cable region so far.
*U-verse is DSL, dammit.
Thanks Efonblog.
So, the maximum number of competitive ‘providers’, available to any single residence, is eventually going to be three. Regardless of the maximum speed, technology, or “wiring” infrastructure pulled to the home: Cable, Copper Pair, glass-fiber.
Right, Jay. Most of us will have a choice of 1) ATT or Grandecom, 2) ATT or TW, but a lucky few of us will also have 3) ATT, TW or Google. If we’re including all providers, there is Clear Wireless, until they end service this year (?) and Earthlink resells TW cable and ATT DSL in their respective regions. In far N Austin there is a point-to-point wireless provider; I forget the name. It’s possible I’m unaware of some others. Oh, and there’s satellite bwhahahah.
I’m posting this from one of the new 16×4 Arris gateways TWC’s handing out at their office a few miles north of me. And yes, the full capabilities of the modem are already being used (except for maybe widening some upstream channels). So my 300/20 service (as of the 2nd) will be operating off of 608 Mbps down, 80 Mbps up of network capacity. I’ll be renting the gateway for as few months as possible though…I can’t get the WiFi component of the modem to work at all so I’m back to using my five-month-old 802.11ac router, with the TWC… Read more »
Ian, take the cost of the modem, if you can find a price, and divide it over the number of months you think you’ll be keeping twc at your residence. Bear in mind twc is likely to raise their modem “rent” sometime in the near future. Also, the price of modems will likely go down after a number of months. If the projected total cost of buying the modem is less than the projected cost to rent, then buy the modem. If the cost of buying the modem is more, buy the modem anyway to say FU to twc! The… Read more »
Has anybody heard the date for Google fiber to hit Cedar Park?
We don’t even have a firm date for the Austin roll out yet — I wouldn’t hold your breath.
Has anyone noticed a TWC speed increase in the Austin area yet? I’ve noticed several broadband service interruptions today and so have my friends. I assume TWC must be putting the finishing touches on their major broadband speed increase.
Nothing yet.
The TWC Speed Upgrade are now LIVE in Austin!!!
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3540155210
Going to downgrade to Ultimate 100 via Twitter (currently on Extreme Promo), to save a few bucks. 100mbps/10mbps is fast enough for me at this point in time!
When they ask why you are downgrading, tell them your modem doesn’t support the fastest speeds and you object to the modem rental fee. So because they are charging you extra for the modem, they are now losing even more of your business — you will not pay the modem fee and you will downgrade to a less expensive tier at the same time. So the modem fee is now costing them revenue. If enough people do that, there won’t be a modem fee.
Rachel, an Austin TWC retention specialist contacted me this morning around 11:00AM. She gently scolded me for using “social media” to request a broadband discount in exchange for being locked out of the faster tiers due to my SB6141’s limitations. Rachel explained that I had the standard internet promo rate of $34.99 and that each progressively faster tier increases the cost by an additional $10. I was told that I could have called TWC’s Customer No-Service line and had my rate reduced to the $44.99 Turbo/Ultimate 100 promo rate. I was not asked why I was downgrading to Ultimate 100.… Read more »
I’m in San Antonio. Upgrades have supposedly been taking place. The west side of SA, from what the local tech support agent told me, already has it. The north side is getting it next, where I happen to be. Service over the past 2 to 3 weeks has been going in and out. Speeds today are a tad bit slower than usual. I almost always get 20/2. Should be getting the 100/10 upgrade soon.
TW called to let me know I could upgrade my 10MPS to 100MPS for free. Stupidly I accepted. The modem supposedly does go faster. I average about 24 now with variance from 0.4 to 36 except my son got a couple of near 100 tests. With 10 MPS I ranged from 8.6 to 16. Web pages loaded much much faster under the old “slower” service. Under 1 second pages before take 30-90 seconds now. The TWC home page took 6 min 25 seconds to load when I looked up their number for yet another technician visit. I told the person… Read more »