Following through on its vow to increase data speeds via network upgrades and conversions to all-digital, Time Warner Cable is now offering a downstream of 300 Mbps in some areas of New York City and Los Angeles.
Time Warner Cable also increased the data speeds for all its residential Internet plans in Costa Mesa and West Hollywood in California and in areas of Woodside (in Queens) and Staten Island in New York City. Time Warner Cable customers those areas that subscribe to the Standard Internet plan, formerly up to 15 Mbps, will now receive up to 50 Mbps, and customers who subscribe to the Ultimate plan, formerly up to 100 Mbps, will receive up to 300 with no additional charges.
“These significant speed increases and network enhancements will allow our Internet customers to get the most out of their TWC experience,” said Time Warner Cable Chairman and CEO Rob Marcus. ““With this service transformation, our customers can enjoy all the ways they use TWC Internet even better, including streaming video, downloading music and more.”
The network and Internet speed upgrades will soon be available in the Los Angeles areas of Covina, Cypress, Hoover, Crenshaw District and Jefferson Park, and to upper Manhattan and additional neighborhoods in Queens and Staten Island in New York City. By the end of June, Time Warner Cable said it would be delivering the new, faster speed plans to more than 200,000 subscribers.
During its fourth quarter earnings call, Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus outlined the cable operator’s plan to revamp its services under the internal name of “TWC Maxx.” At the time, Time Warner Cable was facing pressure from Charter Communications’ unsolicited attempt to buy the company, but Comcast subsequently came in several weeks later with its $45 billion bid to buy the nation’s second-largest cable operator.
In order to provision the faster data tiers, Time Warner Cable upgraded its systems in New York City and Los Angeles, which included analog-to-digital conversions. Time Warner Cable embarked on the Los Angeles all digital conversion this year after having wrapped up New York City last year.
Time Warner Cable Business Services will also offer new tiers of 100 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 200/20 and 300 /20 as new options in its wideband portfolio. These new options will be available on the same schedule as the residential speed increases and will complement the existing tiers of Internet services available for businesses. TWC Business Services also offers a symmetrical fiber-based Internet service that delivers speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second for business customers.
With the reclaimed bandwidth from going all digital, Time Warner Cable has increased its VOD library to 75,000 hours of content and started using a cloud-based interface in some areas.