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An email from Charter/Spectrum announcing minor speed upgrades. (Image courtesy: pspfreak)
Former Time Warner Cable customers that never received Maxx upgrades are now getting a minor consolation prize from Charter Communications: a minor broadband speed boost at no additional charge.
Customers eventually receive an email message from Charter/Spectrum advising them of the upgrade. For Standard Internet customers, the email reads:
Dear Valued Customer,
We just made your fast Internet speeds even faster. And the best part is, you don’t have to do a thing.
We know that today there is more to see, learn, play, share and do online than ever before. That means more streaming video, more music and movie downloads, more photo sharing and more gaming. You have more devices in your home than ever before, from laptops to game consoles, e-readers to smartphones, which means you need more speed so everyone can do what they need to, and all at the same time if they want to. That’s why we have increased your Internet speeds from 15Mbps to 20Mbps.
This speed increase for our customers is just our way of saying thanks. Enjoy your faster speeds!
Customers in western New York were upgraded over the past weekend, while some others have quietly been getting upgrades over the last two weeks. At press time, we have confirmed two tiers have been upgraded, but others may have as well. Customers need to disconnect the power cable from their modem for 10 seconds and plug it back in to get the new speeds:
- Time Warner Cable Standard Internet: Was 15Mbps, now 20Mbps. (Speeds are overprovisioned and may report somewhat faster during speed tests).
- Time Warner Cable Ultimate Internet: Was 50Mbps, now 60Mbps. (Speeds are overprovisioned and generally report 70/6Mbps during speed tests).
Stop the Cap! reader Howard in Albany, N.Y. reported his area was upgraded over the weekend, and we can confirm customers in the Rochester/Finger Lakes region in western New York are now also getting the higher speeds.
Legacy Time Warner Cable customers can report their experiences in the comment section. We’d be particularly interested in knowing if these upgrades also happened for Turbo and Extreme customers.
I was on TW Business Class at 15/2. I have seen zero change in speed.
Business class customers do not get the upgrade, but check out Charter’s Business Class packages, which I’ve heard are faster and much cheaper for some customers. Let me know if you do and what you find out.
In an area that was had Maxx coverage previously. The speeds are still faster than what is being paid for but have gotten several calls urging to move to a ‘spectrum package’ threatening possibly price hikes if I don’t. Nothing has happened yet, but I could probably wallpaper my entire house with the incessant triple play advertisements they seem to send me daily in the mail.
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in Central NY region at least in soon to be Maxx areas that never were: Ithaca, Syracuse.(June 1 2016) Spectrum standard speed is 100mb/s This is not TW legacy, though, only Spectrum. Seems like a sneaky way to keep single play internet customers on TW legacy billing to stay at a high price.. Sneaky, sneaky.
Syracuse and CNY is such a confusing mess because parts of it got Maxx upgrades and others were DAYS away from getting them and then they were canceled by our “friends” at Charter. In non-Maxx areas, 100Mbps is the fastest you will get from them until upgrades are complete across NYS to meet the terms of their agreement with the PSC requiring up to 300Mbps across Charter’s New York footprint no later than 2019. The transition to all-digital cable TV service has to happen first and Buffalo and Rochester have never begun this while parts of CNY have. If you… Read more »
Time Warner Standard customer here in Buffalo. Got the e-mail from Spectrum a week ago. Just got my 15 to 20 upgrade today.
In the Rochester, NY area. Town of Greece. I have 20/2. Did not receive any letter or other notification from Spectrum. Power cycled my modem. Still have 20/2 (plus the usual over provisioning which I also had before.)
So it looks like there is no reason you should be signed up for Turbo service, since the Standard service is now exactly the same speed. If you are on a promotional plan with TWC, leave it alone until it expires (or until you want to go to Spectrum 60Mbps internet). You want to be very careful not to lose any promotions in effect with TWC. When they expire, your bill will skyrocket.
Mine went from $129 to $180. Ouch. I am pulling the plug this week.
I’m all set to cut the cord. Have a Roku and an antenna for local stations. Can’t pick up channel 8 here in Rochester. I contacted the chief engineer at channel 8. The FCC requires them to null their signal to the north. Since I’m in Greece, I can’t pick up their signal. From what I gather, Webster and Irondequoit people are in the same boat. Now I just need to wean my wife off of the DVR and to decide what, if any, streaming services we may want. Maybe try one or two out for a month or two… Read more »
Channel 8 (WROC) is totally unreceivable in northwest suburbs like Spencerport and western Greece. They have to protect a station in Ontario so you are right, they null the hell out of the signal in that direction. Your best solution is to consider CBS All Access Pass, which costs $5.99 with commercials, $9.99 without. I like it a lot and it includes live streaming of your local CBS station (in this case WROC locally). It will get that channel back, albeit at a cost. If you want DVR service, consider Hulu’s new offer, but pay their upgrade price or you’ll… Read more »
I got 37/6 from Speedtest.net after a modem and router reset, so I suspect that’s supposed to be the 35/5 speed? I’m listed as having “Extreme” which I don’t think was quite that fast before.
Extreme has had a speed of 35/5 for a long time, TW over provisioned a bit.
I think Extreme got a slight speed boost and often now hits 40Mbps instead of 30Mbps on speed tests. But if you don’t have a deal, you can get this probably for less with a Spectrum plan, which will now get you close to 70Mbps.
Yeah it’s weird, 300 can be had in some of wisconsin and it’s not a maxx area. 60 or 300. 100 shows up on the spectrum site but 60 is still the base
In most areas, Spectrum only advertises one plan: 60 or 100Mbps.
The higher speed plans (100 where 60 is sold, 300 where 100 is sold) are not even on the website in most places. You have to call in to get the news it will cost $199 for that speed upgrade as a one-time fee. (Forget it).
My internet is working fine but now my cable tv is giving reference code error message screens for several of the channels that I have as part of my legacy time warner package – I haven’t switched to a spectrum plan and my account billing shows nothing has changed with my services, what the heck are they doing with SoCal greater Los Angeles customers?? I can’t even find an applicable channel lineup on their twc portal nor the spectrum one. This is obnoxious and I’m only going to be in the state for another two and a half months before… Read more »
They are screwing with you. Use the call-in tool or app to “reauthorize” your cable box. Tell the interactive voice system you are missing channels. They will “send the signal” to reauthorize your box. If that fails, they have put you in the category of customers they are forcing “accidentally” into new Spectrum plans.
But for now, assume it’s a screwup that is fixable.
BTW, Cox is hardly a delight either and they cap your internet usage.
I’m not doing any streaming, based on my practices as a charter-spectrum customer currently all I need from Cox is a decent internet speed and cable tv with an acceptably sizeable channel lineup with the programs I watch. I’m not sure whether I will need to get a standard type home phone out in Nebraska or will just use my cell phone service. My channel error message issue has subsided for now, but I anticipate they will continue to try and force me to change over to one of their ‘deals’. Since I’m moving in a couple months it’s probably… Read more »
I live halfway between Buffalo and Rochester and I tried power-cycling my modem on my $69.99/month Turbo service. My speed remained at 20/2. I called TWC/Spectrum to see what my speed options are and the only thing she said was that I could upgrade to Spectrum 60/5 service for the same price. I decided to go for it, though I would have been more comfortable reading a better explanation of all the options ahead of time. Speed tests afterward showed 70/6 at 1:00 in the afternoon. It is disappointing that the web site only showed for my account old TWC… Read more »
I am on Turbo in Greece NY and no speed improvement for me as of yet. I have not received an email either. Not sure how they are rolling this out.
Cleveland legacy Extreme customer. I used to get 50/5, and from what I can tell from downloads and SpeedTest, I still do. I haven’t received any email from them about an upgrade, but they’re advertising “up to” 60mbps here anyway.