GunsMadeAmericaFree
Golden Member
For the past few years I've used Time Warner cable Internet. The price was about $20 a month originally, then $25, for 1 megabit per second speeds. That was fine for 99% of my use, but occasionally (around once a month) I have to work with high resolution graphics images (downloading, & uploading to send to my editor) When I'm doing that, it can get quite annoying.
I was shopping around last month, thinking about switching to Frontier Internet - 3 mbps for $30 a month, when I came across an article saying Time Warner was increasing their Internet Lite to 2 Megabits per second nationwide, and dropping the price to $15 a month as of early November. I figured what the heck, I'll be very happy with twice the current speed, especially considering they are dropping the price! Evidently they were feeling competition from DSL & other internet providers, who were starting to offer faster speeds for lower prices in many areas.
I waited a month, then did internet speed tests. It doesn't matter whether I am hooked up wirelessly or with Cat5, I get the same exact speeds at various times of the day - 1 megabit upload speeds, and 1 megabit download speeds. I have not seen it vary more than 5%, ever. My cable modem can handle 50x this speed, and the simultaneous dual band router can definitely handle many, many times this speed. I am getting exactly the "up to 1 megabit" speed that I was getting under the old "Internet Lite" tier.
I finally called Time Warner today and asked when I would see the increased speed. I thought that maybe for some reason I was still set up under the old settings that had my speed maxed at the 1 mbps. She said that as long as I am getting 1 megabit per second, I am right where I should be. The lady told me that despite the "up to 2 megabits per second" rating, most customers nationwide are reporting download speeds from 760k to 1 megabit per second. I told her that the website says "up to 2 megabits", and that I have never seen more than half that speed. I specifically asked her if I should be happy always getting 50% of the speed listed, and she said yes. I was rather surprised by her candid answer. She DID say that under certain circumstances I might see 2 megabits per second. I asked her under what circumstances I could expect to see that speed, and she could not provide specifics.
I should have said "do those specific circumstances happen to entail me sending you more money each month?" 🙂
I'm starting to think this was all a marketing gimmick, and that there has actually been no change at all in the speed customers are getting. Should we be happy getting half of the "up to" speed all of the time? I guess since I always got the "up to" speed 100% of the time before (when it was 1 megabit per second), I had just assumed I would also do the same now that it is 2 megabits per second, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Was anyone else out there under the old "Internet Lite" (aka the new "Everyday Low Price Internet") plan? Have any of you seen a speed increase lately? Thanks!
I was shopping around last month, thinking about switching to Frontier Internet - 3 mbps for $30 a month, when I came across an article saying Time Warner was increasing their Internet Lite to 2 Megabits per second nationwide, and dropping the price to $15 a month as of early November. I figured what the heck, I'll be very happy with twice the current speed, especially considering they are dropping the price! Evidently they were feeling competition from DSL & other internet providers, who were starting to offer faster speeds for lower prices in many areas.
I waited a month, then did internet speed tests. It doesn't matter whether I am hooked up wirelessly or with Cat5, I get the same exact speeds at various times of the day - 1 megabit upload speeds, and 1 megabit download speeds. I have not seen it vary more than 5%, ever. My cable modem can handle 50x this speed, and the simultaneous dual band router can definitely handle many, many times this speed. I am getting exactly the "up to 1 megabit" speed that I was getting under the old "Internet Lite" tier.
I finally called Time Warner today and asked when I would see the increased speed. I thought that maybe for some reason I was still set up under the old settings that had my speed maxed at the 1 mbps. She said that as long as I am getting 1 megabit per second, I am right where I should be. The lady told me that despite the "up to 2 megabits per second" rating, most customers nationwide are reporting download speeds from 760k to 1 megabit per second. I told her that the website says "up to 2 megabits", and that I have never seen more than half that speed. I specifically asked her if I should be happy always getting 50% of the speed listed, and she said yes. I was rather surprised by her candid answer. She DID say that under certain circumstances I might see 2 megabits per second. I asked her under what circumstances I could expect to see that speed, and she could not provide specifics.
I should have said "do those specific circumstances happen to entail me sending you more money each month?" 🙂
I'm starting to think this was all a marketing gimmick, and that there has actually been no change at all in the speed customers are getting. Should we be happy getting half of the "up to" speed all of the time? I guess since I always got the "up to" speed 100% of the time before (when it was 1 megabit per second), I had just assumed I would also do the same now that it is 2 megabits per second, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Was anyone else out there under the old "Internet Lite" (aka the new "Everyday Low Price Internet") plan? Have any of you seen a speed increase lately? Thanks!
