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Time Warner Cable

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Dear Time Warner Cable

Mark Cathcart

I keep getting these marketing letters from Time Warner. It appears they’ve got nothing better to do than review my account… trying to sell me on a 300Mpbs upgrade. I sent a response today by USPS. I doubt they’ll stop sending, so at least I can post the response here and get some mileage from it 🙂 Thank you for your letter. If you were really reviewing my account you’d see I’m only have a 50Mpbs modem for my existing 100Mpbs service. It works fine. Want me to upgrade? Provide a free modem for my existing service. Thanks. Mark Cathcart. … Continue reading Dear Time Warner Cable

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Google corrects typo

Mark Cathcart

I reported the Google typo yesterday and it has been fixed now, Mbps it is. No change to their “free” tier of service though, so 5Mbps it is. I got a lot of feedback on my “negativity” over this, both on the neighborhood forum, the comment below, and via personal email. And yes, being able to pay the $300 fee in installments is a good break. So it looks correct, 5Mbps while useful, really isn’t good enough for a family except for email, facebook and infrequent youtube/netflx. TWC offer a comparable 6/1Mbps plan for $29+modem/wifi, taxes fees. < Which is … Continue reading Google corrects typo

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Google fiber disappoints on price

Mark Cathcart

Well Google fiber is on its way, they’ve sprayed marked across our front yards this week ready to install the vaults, most people don’t understand these will be buried in your front yard, after all fiber optic cable isn’t your parents cable. In other news, Google have announced the Austin pricing and service speeds, and I have to say, it’s pretty disappointing really. First up as seen in this screen capture, their website lists speeds in Mpbs. I work in the tech sector, heck I used to be a networking specialist, I admit I have no idea what Mpbs is. … Continue reading Google fiber disappoints on price

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Net Neutrality and the FCC

Mark Cathcart

Since I’ve complained about the price/performance and lack of choice in wired Internet Broadband here extensively, I thought I’d include a link to a blog post I wrote earlier and posted on my primarily technology blog, where I hope more of the tech community will read and write their own. If you are even vaguely committed to using the Internet in the future in the United States, you should read the blog, watch the video, and submit your own comments to the FCC. I’d hope they are against the proposal, but I’d rather have contrary comments that disagree with my … Continue reading Net Neutrality and the FCC

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In Love with Cable?

Mark Cathcart

The cable industry is in turmoil, customers leaving in droves, and they are being squeezed at the content end and their costs for programming are soaring. It looks like Time Warner Cable is going to get divested, broken up, bought up merged, or something along those lines. Motley Fool posted this analysis that they are not expecting this to lower your bills. TIme Techland has a write-up on the new cable company promotion web site, “The hole saga” and the state of the cable industry. Author Harry McCraken speculates about the poor performance of the website “one loaded with so … Continue reading In Love with Cable?

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TWC (This Weeks Charges)

Mark Cathcart

Sorting through my bills and catching up with payments, I was just sat here going through my Time Warner Cable bill. The layout can be confusing, the list of charges, taxes, etc. legend. I noticed the text in the left hand column under the heading ENJOY TWC BETTER on their latest bill, I’d missed the announcement they are increasing prices(again) for no visible, benefit. See my various blog entries tagged Time-Warner-Cable or TWC Especially galling is the price increase of the Internet Modem Lease, up another $2 to $5.49. Remember they only started charging for this at all less than a year … Continue reading TWC (This Weeks Charges)

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Can’t get enough Fiber

Mark Cathcart

So, it’s formally announced, Google Fiber is coming to Austin in 2014. This is potentially a great announcement. The focus will be on the speed, which in my view is wrong. It should be on the affordability and open access. For the most part, as I’ve blogged numerous times, Time Warner Cable is more than fast enough for most homes, its just uncompetitively priced for most, and not affordable for many. I’ll be especially interested to see how they do this, right down to if they lay new cables underground, using existing or new carrier pipes; hopefully it wont just be more optical cable … Continue reading Can’t get enough Fiber

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Stage 3 Time Warner Disconnect

Mark Cathcart

Since my last post on the subject I’ve been diligently removing Time Warner Cable services. First up I cancelled Home Phone and Cable TV, installed a DISH package, and then over the weekend, I replaced my 2005 Time Warner Cable modem with a 2012 Netgear CMD31T cable modem. It took the “chat agent” a long time… to do what ever they do when you switch over and give them the MAC address for your new modem, but eventually came back and confirmed I could power off and disconnect their modem and connect mine. Everything appeared to go OK, but disappointment struck soon … Continue reading Stage 3 Time Warner Disconnect