Time Warner Cable held a press event in Austin this morning to announce that its TWC WiFi service was available across 900 hotspots.
Earlier this week, AT&T announced it would have a 1 Gbps service available next year in Austin, which also roughly coincides with a Google Fiber’s 1 Gig service launch in Austin.
Time Warner Cable plans on having 1,350 Wi-Fi access points up in Austin by the end of the year, with more to come next year. Time Warner Cable announced its Austin Wi-Fi initiative in April of this year. The access point vendor is Ruckus Wireless, which Time Warner Cable has previously used for indoor and outdoor hotspots.
Time Warner Cable’s Wi-Fi service is free to its customers that subscribe to its Standard or above data services. Time Warner Cable is also offering pay-as-you-go access to the Wi-Fi network in Austin for non-subscribers.
“Attending live music events, experiencing the newest culinary sensations and even shopping for unique items on South Congress are just some of the things that make Austin great, and we want to connect Austinites to the Internet wherever they go around town,” said Kathy Brabson, area vice president of operations for Time Warner Cable. “We’re going to continue to invest to bring Wi-Fi to areas in Austin where the community can take advantage of being connected to the Time Warner Cable network.”
The most recent hotspots were deployed across four popular corridors in Austin:
• Barton Springs road (Zilker Park to S. Congress)
• South Lamar (Riverside to Ben White Boulevard/Highway 71)
• The South Congress area (Riverside to Ben White Boulevard/Highway 71)
• 38th Street at North Lamar corridor
Time Warner Cable also announced a free two week trial of its Wi-Fi to commemorate its partnership with ACL Festival Oct. 3-13. Time Warner Cable is the official WiFi provider for the music festival.
TWC WiFi deployments are also underway in Southern California, Kansas City, Hawaii, Charlotte and New York City with access to more than 23,000 hotspots. Time Warner Cable subscribers can use the company’s TWC Wi-Fi Finder app , which works with both Android and Apple iOS devices, to find nearby hotspots.
Two years ago Time Warner Cable announced it was spending $15 million to build a Wi-Fi network in its Los Angeles footprint.
At last year’s Cable Show, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cox Communications, Cablevision and Bright House Networks announced a roaming agreement that allowed their subscribers to use each other’s Wi-Fi hotspots. The agreement gives cable subscribers from those companies access to more than 200,000 access points nationwide.
