The new rule of the internet might well be: where Google goes, competition flows to follow. And so, Time Warner Cable customers in Charlotte are about to see a big boost in internet speeds long before a Fiber rollout comes to their town.
Time Warner Cable announced the upgrade to “TWC Maxx” this week, for customers in the Charlotte area.
The move is similar to what TWC has done in Austin (also a Google Fiber city) and has promised to do in New York and L.A..
Although the name sounds like an “adult” on-demand channel, the “Maxx” plan is basically an upgrade taking the local network to all-digital delivery, instead of analog, which basically frees up bandwidth on the existing network for increasing internet speeds for consumers. According to TWC, internet customers at all subscription levels will see speed increases, ranging up to 300 Mbps for the top tier, appear for free beginning “this summer.”
Granted that 300 Mbps is nowhere near as fast as the gigabit (1000 Mbps) fiber Google is planning to bring to Charlotte, but it is certainly much faster than TWC’s current 50 Mbps ceiling. It also has the extremely beneficial factors of “no additional charge over my current bill” and “I don’t have to do anything to make this happen” going for it for current TWC subscribers. That doesn’t mean bills won’t keep going up over time (because they will), but it sure beats having to sign up for a new service that isn’t even rolled out yet.
TWC’s move feels like one farther step in a path that Google seems to be carving nationwide: a swath of cities seeing improved service, and price parity, in the face of actual competition from internet providers. Most of us live in monopoly, or at best duopoly, territory for broadband providers.
But when Google announces plans to expand into a new market, competitors either strive to dive in first, like Comcast in Atlanta, or drop prices to match, like AT&T in Austin and Kansas City.
In short, even customers who don’t sign up with Google benefit from Google’s entrance into their local markets. Almost as if competition is a real and valuable thing that spurs businesses to offer better service, at better prices, to consumers.
by Kate Cox via Consumerist
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