TWC Ups Austin Broadband Speeds as Google Fiber Looms

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
Messages
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Not that Time Warner in Austin was feeling any pressure from the impending rollout of Google Fiber or anything, but out of the goodness of their corporate heart, TWC Austin has increased broadband speeds up to six fold for free.

Time Warner didn't explicitly mention Google’s looming Austin launch in a news release, but the company did take a dig at the search engine and advertising giant.
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I can't wait until the broadband wars start, much like the cell phone wars going on now. Google's free plan alone will be enough to make a change. It's just a shame it takes so long to be implemented throughout the nation. If it comes here to Phoenix they said it will be years before we can use it.
 
Wow, 50 to 300 at the same price. But I thought bandwidth was so limited and moving data was so expensive. When they do this, they just show what a bunch of lying a-holes they really are. Google is apparently looking to expand close to me soon. I'm sure they won't actually get to my house, but hopefully it will force TWC to do the same here.
 
Is this in name only...or did they really not oversell their bandwidth to start with at 50Mbps?
 
It's shared bandwidth still, some will benefit and some will get screwed with caps and charges when they try to download the world making bandwidth for others suffer.

Google, on the other hand, is dedicated bandwidth. TWC can't compete no matter if they open the rate limiting wide open. If google comes to your area, get it.
 
We had TWC here in Kansas City for a year while we waited for our fiberhood to get Google Fiber. About 6 or 7 months prior, they upped our speed to 100mbs from 50mbs
 
btw, Google Fiber is uncapped ..... I've gotten 1.5gigabit a few times or about 165 megabyte a second
 
shows 156 but a few seconds later was 165

ZPbyB4G.jpg
 
Well really can't comment with any amount of actual data. I suppose if possible it would be good to know what profit % these local cable/telco's are loosing to compete with google and other ISPs etc. They could be losing their shirts, along with Google who could be operating at a loss for any number of reasons.

From every report I have seen though prices and/or service migrate toward the customer benefit when there is real isp competition... DSL vs Cable doesn't count imo. Heck I live in a major metropolitan area and DSL is still limited to 1.5m which is not an option at all.

At least so far I think signs are showing that cable companies really have no intention to provide value for value in their services. Which in my opinion is sad, on many levels.
 
This whole thing makes me cry.

I PAY extra to get 2Mbps download speeds from TimeWarner........and in Austin they are giving it away.................

Competition is good but I'll never see it. I feel like I live in a different country.:eek:
 
magoo said:
This whole thing makes me cry.

I PAY extra to get 2Mbps download speeds from TimeWarner........and in Austin they are giving it away.................

Competition is good but I'll never see it. I feel like I live in a different country.:eek:
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Time to move.
 
savagepagan said:
Progressives will tell you that competition is bad for ppl.
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Progressives, You use that word..... I do not think it means what you think it means. You "free market" libertarian republican types are the sole reason that Time Warner and Comcast have an iron grip on this nation. If we were progressive then we would be like the UK or any of the other countries in Europe that have dirt cheap fast internet
 
Eiolon said:
I can't wait until the broadband wars start, much like the cell phone wars going on now. Google's free plan alone will be enough to make a change. It's just a shame it takes so long to be implemented throughout the nation. If it comes here to Phoenix they said it will be years before we can use it.
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The problem is these "wars" will only occur where Google absolutely is going to lay out fiber, good luck seeing that 50 to 300Mbps speed jump anywhere else. TWC knew about Google coming to town for some time, only now deciding to make the jump?

Goes to show you, bandwidth is cheap, all these big cable/phone companies offering tiered services that are unrealistically more expensive is nothing but increase profit for them.
 
I think TWC is just moving from Docsis 2 to 3 equipment here in Austin. That alone will help speeds a lot. I don't see any signs that they're laying new cables or installing new systems around town.
 
I just keep hoping portland will be next but I'm not sure the population density will be sifficient for them. However, intel is a huge driving force in the portland area so that may come into play.
 
BBA said:
It's shared bandwidth still, some will benefit and some will get screwed with caps and charges when they try to download the world making bandwidth for others suffer.

Google, on the other hand, is dedicated bandwidth. TWC can't compete no matter if they open the rate limiting wide open. If google comes to your area, get it.
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In all honesty there is no such thing as dedicated bandwidth, there is a point somewhere on the network that it all comes back to a single point and is then shared from there on.

The question is just at what point are you going to bottle neck everything and to what degree.

If every customer on Google fiber tried to max out their connection you would start to notice loss of speed also, but the chock point is just larger than that of the cable provider in most cases.
 
Exavior said:
If every customer on Google fiber tried to max out their connection you would start to notice loss of speed also, but the chock point is just larger than that of the cable provider in most cases.
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Probably more of a lag than a speed drop, chances of everyone "clicking the download" button at the same time is pretty far fetched, with gigabit speeds just about anything you download will download quickly meaning that you're actually going to be using the available bandwidth for a smaller fraction of time. Well assuming you don't get anyone trying to run a server off it, in which case they'll be probably be violating ToS and then bitch up a storm on some website as to how unfair it is for them not to be able to do so.
 
Nashville is on Google's newest list of prospective expansion cities; even if we do make the cut and my particular "fiberhood" doesn't get enough people to light it up right away during the buildout, maybe it'll light a huge fire under Comcast to give my better service and prices.
 
This is exactly why I am dropping TWC next week. Already got a local "DSL" provider coming to install their equipment next week. Supposedly they are promising 70/30Mbs for $40 a month while I am paying $65 for 50/5Mbps from TWC.

Hope they come through with their promises.
 
Skillz said:
This is exactly why I am dropping TWC next week. Already got a local "DSL" provider coming to install their equipment next week. Supposedly they are promising 70/30Mbs for $40 a month while I am paying $65 for 50/5Mbps from TWC.

Hope they come through with their promises.
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Given that DSL as a technology isn't capable of those speeds..i would say you are going to end up severely disappointed.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Given that DSL as a technology isn't capable of those speeds..i would say you are going to end up severely disappointed.
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"Isn't capable" on a good day....and even VDSL can't hit 70/30 last I knew.
 
Well DSL is technically capable of those speeds since VDSL2 can achieve up to 100Mbps at 500 meters or so... but that is why I put quotations around DSL, because I am not sure what it is and when I asked that's what the lady on the phone told me. She did mention talking to an engineer who said fiber was in my neighborhood so I don't know.

The company is North State Communications.
 
While I was talking to the lady, I asked her if their was any installation charge or anything. She told me no, that the technician will come install the wires and setup the modem. I asked her if it just used the telephone line and she said that it does not use the telephone line that they'll install a cable that looks similar to the telephone line, but then she followed that with they'll check to see if they could use the telephone line in which case they wont have to install anything. So I'm wondering if they're going to be installing cat6 or similar.

I will for sure be finding out Wednesday though. If it's at least 50Mbps I wont complain since it's a good bit cheaper than what I am paying for now. Not sure how much less I will deal with below 50Mbps before I tell them I don't want it since it doesn't meet my needs.

They offer a 30/30 Mbps connection as well for only $30 a month. I might be okay with that instead of TWC's 50/5 Mbps connection for $65 a month.
 
Skillz said:
While I was talking to the lady, I asked her if their was any installation charge or anything. She told me no, that the technician will come install the wires and setup the modem. I asked her if it just used the telephone line and she said that it does not use the telephone line that they'll install a cable that looks similar to the telephone line, but then she followed that with they'll check to see if they could use the telephone line in which case they wont have to install anything. So I'm wondering if they're going to be installing cat6 or similar.

I will for sure be finding out Wednesday though. If it's at least 50Mbps I wont complain since it's a good bit cheaper than what I am paying for now. Not sure how much less I will deal with below 50Mbps before I tell them I don't want it since it doesn't meet my needs.

They offer a 30/30 Mbps connection as well for only $30 a month. I might be okay with that instead of TWC's 50/5 Mbps connection for $65 a month.
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Sounds like ethernet to the home.
 
Don't worry TWC customers, when Comcast gets ahold of us we're all going to be PRAYING for Google Fiber.
Even the atheists.:D
 
Wow! Up to 300mbps. And here I'm ecstatic over TWC doubling my down speed from 50mbps to 100mbps.
 
magoo said:
This whole thing makes me cry.

I PAY extra to get 2Mbps download speeds from TimeWarner........and in Austin they are giving it away.................

Competition is good but I'll never see it. I feel like I live in a different country.:eek:
Click to expand...

The saddest part is that instead of TW spending that money to upgrade an area in need, they throw it at an area where people are already going to get something faster. So now people in that area whom were already getting a decent 50 get 2 choices over 100. Meanwhile the town next door might not be off 16.
 
SGA76 said:
Don't worry TWC customers, when Comcast gets ahold of us we're all going to be PRAYING for Google Fiber.
Even the atheists.:D
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I've never seen a Google with my eyes. I still don't believe it's real.

No way I'll pray to a Google!
 
Hate to rub it in but we have 3 providers that have promised 1gb connections for around $70/mo. 300mb will be a nice boost till the others get around to laying fiber. I just hope fiber comes to my house before Comcrap and their pathetic cap does.
 
rudy said:
The saddest part is that instead of TW spending that money to upgrade an area in need, they throw it at an area where people are already going to get something faster. So now people in that area whom were already getting a decent 50 get 2 choices over 100. Meanwhile the town next door might not be off 16.
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There probably more capacity in most of the country already.. they are probably waiting to kill net neutrality fully, so later then can say, this new speeds where only possible because we are not longer tied down to net neutrality, and due to the use of data Caps.. a bunch of BS I would not put past them... ooh its coming..
 
Skillz said:
Well DSL is technically capable of those speeds since VDSL2 can achieve up to 100Mbps at 500 meters or so... but that is why I put quotations around DSL, because I am not sure what it is and when I asked that's what the lady on the phone told me. She did mention talking to an engineer who said fiber was in my neighborhood so I don't know.

The company is North State Communications.
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Finally somebody that understand that DSL can fucking do over 3Mbps :)

Yes VDSL2 can get you to those speeds. You also can do bonding to push that out further. Which in some areas is what they are doing, bonding two pairs to extend their reach for VDSL2.

Skillz said:
While I was talking to the lady, I asked her if their was any installation charge or anything. She told me no, that the technician will come install the wires and setup the modem. I asked her if it just used the telephone line and she said that it does not use the telephone line that they'll install a cable that looks similar to the telephone line, but then she followed that with they'll check to see if they could use the telephone line in which case they wont have to install anything. So I'm wondering if they're going to be installing cat6 or similar.

I will for sure be finding out Wednesday though. If it's at least 50Mbps I wont complain since it's a good bit cheaper than what I am paying for now. Not sure how much less I will deal with below 50Mbps before I tell them I don't want it since it doesn't meet my needs.

They offer a 30/30 Mbps connection as well for only $30 a month. I might be okay with that instead of TWC's 50/5 Mbps connection for $65 a month.
Click to expand...

She might just be referring to the cable going from the NID to the jack inside of your house. Cat5 or higher is preferred in place of the older cat3 as that allows for better performance. So they might just be looking at replacing your cat3 with something better and the woman just did a piss poor job trying to explain that. I work for a Telco / ISP and my brain hurts sometimes trying to hear our CSRs explain stuff to customers that they don't fully understand.
 
jschuricht said:
Hate to rub it in but we have 3 providers that have promised 1gb connections for around $70/mo. 300mb will be a nice boost till the others get around to laying fiber. I just hope fiber comes to my house before Comcrap and their pathetic cap does.
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Just because Comcast gets there first doesn't mean you have to take it. That is the problem people bitch about Comcast, their prices and caps and everything but still go with them for service. That is why they keep up their practices because people still run to them begging to have their service so they have no reason not to do what they do. Hold off for the other guys if you don't like Comcast, don't give them your money. While a single person won't change much, if more people did that they would have to change to fail.
 
I use to be a big fan of DSL back in the day, but the TeleCo (BellSouth and then later AT&T) wouldn't ever up the speeds. I had a technician come out to my house at the time and told me I was so close to the DSLAM that I could have got around 15Mbps back in 2000/2001 time frame, but AT&T's DSL is still only up to 6Mbps to this day. Needless to say it didn't take much to get me to switch to Cable @ 10Mbps at that time.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Given that DSL as a technology isn't capable of those speeds..i would say you are going to end up severely disappointed.
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DSL can hit those kind of speeds, I know somebody who had this speed of DSL before they discontinued it in his area.
 
cyclone3d said:
DSL can hit those kind of speeds, I know somebody who had this speed of DSL before they discontinued it in his area.
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They discontinued higher speed service in his area? did they replace it with fiber then?
 
Skillz said:
While I was talking to the lady, I asked her if their was any installation charge or anything. She told me no, that the technician will come install the wires and setup the modem. I asked her if it just used the telephone line and she said that it does not use the telephone line that they'll install a cable that looks similar to the telephone line, but then she followed that with they'll check to see if they could use the telephone line in which case they wont have to install anything. So I'm wondering if they're going to be installing cat6 or similar.

I will for sure be finding out Wednesday though. If it's at least 50Mbps I wont complain since it's a good bit cheaper than what I am paying for now. Not sure how much less I will deal with below 50Mbps before I tell them I don't want it since it doesn't meet my needs.

They offer a 30/30 Mbps connection as well for only $30 a month. I might be okay with that instead of TWC's 50/5 Mbps connection for $65 a month.
Click to expand...

Ok that is quite a bit different. That is them running fiber and then either that to the wall and then copper from there or likely just copper from the pole to your house. Either way, not DSL.

Exavior said:
Finally somebody that understand that DSL can fucking do over 3Mbps :)

Yes VDSL2 can get you to those speeds. You also can do bonding to push that out further. Which in some areas is what they are doing, bonding two pairs to extend their reach for VDSL2.



She might just be referring to the cable going from the NID to the jack inside of your house. Cat5 or higher is preferred in place of the older cat3 as that allows for better performance. So they might just be looking at replacing your cat3 with something better and the woman just did a piss poor job trying to explain that. I work for a Telco / ISP and my brain hurts sometimes trying to hear our CSRs explain stuff to customers that they don't fully understand.
Click to expand...

cyclone3d said:
DSL can hit those kind of speeds, I know somebody who had this speed of DSL before they discontinued it in his area.
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Actually no, DSL cannot do those speeds VDSL is 52/16 MAX. Talking about bonding is another concept entirely. Just because you bond a bunch of T1 lines doesn't suddenly make them an T3 or OC12, just a bunch of T1 lines bonded. Saying DSL is capable of those speeds is extremely misleading. You can achieve high speeds by bonding a bunch of DSL lines together and if the company is willing to eat the cost and treat it as one connection then great. But that doesn't suddenly make the technology capable of high speeds singularly. If you want to get into semantics I can bond a bunch of 56k phone lines together and achieve 1mb but that doesn't make it broadband.

So yes the Speed "CAN" be achieved, but it isn't through DSL technology. That is by using bonding and a bunch of equipment that is normally prohibitively expensive for the end customer. If the customer gets the end speed, I'm sure they don't care but I would be extremely wary of a "Catch" here. Couple that with the fact that DSL is really terrible when it comes to reliability and I would find myself very skeptical that a bonded DSL or vdsl connection would stand up long term. As for VDSL2...well it isn't exactly deployed in any number of locations and that is mostly due to the sheer performance problems of VDSL. Someone mentioned 500m earlier and that is just flat out wrong. You are at best going to get 300m before you take a serious speed hit and both VDSL and VDSL 2 degrade quickly from there. By the time you hit 500m your speeds are just going to be shit and that is assuming top notch copper the entire distance (extremely unlikely).

There is a reason why any network admin worth a damn won't touch DSL of any type. I honestly could go into a long rant about it, but I just really don't care too. I wish the guy converting to it luck, but personally the cable company would have to be supremely shitty for me to downgrade to DSL. Though it does sound like its actually a fiber/copper pull, so he may be find in that case. Though usually those are business connections and no where near that cheap. If he is getting a business class fiber/copper drop though, that is a huge win for him.
 
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