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Time Warner Cable Internet subscribers, gather ’round.
I recently called TWC to downgrade my service. I was paying $75/mo for 20Mbps service – what they call their Turbo service – and I felt that was too much. ($75 is what happens after you exhaust the special 12 month rate, and include all the taxes, fees and modem rental charges.)
The best the rep could offer me was a savings of $10/mo to drop down to 15Mbps. BUT, she said, if I preferred, they could keep me at the same rate while upgrading my modem to a newer model that would increase my speed to 50Mbps, effectively giving me the Ultimate service for no extra charge. After a series questions designed to reveal any fine print or asterisk that she wasn’t mentioning (I found none), I agreed.
TWC’s Advertised Internet-only Rates
When the new modem arrived, I was a little annoyed to discover that it was much larger than my current one and had a built-in wireless router. (I have a Linksys E3000 with DD-WRT firmware – I had no interest in replacing my router.) But now the only thing to do was test.
And the results? I started at 20Mbps, was promised 50Mbps – and tested at over 100Mbps. Seriously. My internet speed quintupled, at no additional charge, just because I told them I wanted to downgrade.
I tested the whole setup 6 ways from Sunday, and here’s what I got:
- Hardwired into the modem: ~100Mbps
- Connected to the built-in 5GHz wireless via 802.11n: ~100Mbps
- Connected to the built-in 2.4GHz wireless via 802.11n: ~80Mbps
- Connected to my DD-WRT 5GHz wireless via 802.11n: ~50Mbps 😦
- Connected to the built-in 2.4GHz wireless via 802.11g: ~20Mbps
The TWC rep mentioned this offer had something to with them wanting to get everyone in my area on upgraded equipment, so this could be just a regional thing. But if you’re a TWC subscriber in the NYC metro area, you may want to make a quick phone call.
