Time Warner speeds up as Fibrant begins

By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

As Salisbury officially launched its Fibrant fiber-optic service this week, Time Warner Cable announced it would speed up its own Internet service in Rowan and the region.

But Fibrant already offers the new Internet download speeds touted by Time Warner, a city official said.

“We just haven’t advertised it,” Assistant City Manager Doug Paris said.

And Fibrant’s top available speed is 10 times faster than the cable giant’s when uploading, Paris said.

Uploading is sending information out, like video chatting on Skype. Downloading is bringing information in, like opening a photo attachment in an e-mail.

“We’re cheaper, and we’re faster,” Paris said.

The city launched Fibrant on Monday, offering Internet, cable TV and digital phone service.

The next day, Time Warner Cable announced new Internet download speeds in the Charlotte area of up to 50 megabits per second — twice as fast as Fibrant’s quickest advertised speed of 25 Mbps.

But on Thursday, Paris said Fibrant does offer download and upload speeds of 50 Mbps.

The fastest upload speed available with Time Warner’s new upgrade is 5 Mbps.

Fibrant’s speediest service isn’t listed on the utility’s rate card or website. But the city always has planned to offer 50x50 Mbps upload and download for $85 per month, Paris said.

“We plan to roll out higher speeds over time,” he said.

Fibrant has the capacity to go up to 1 gigabit per second upload and download, Paris said. The utility plans to offer 100x100 Mbps and 200x200 Mbps but has not set prices, he said.

Fibrant customers can request the 50x50 Mbps option, Paris said. The city has yet to determine when that option will appear on the advertised rate schedule, he said.

Time Warner Cable boosted Internet speed overnight this week for all Turbo and Standard Internet service customers, said Mike Smith, area vice president for Time Warner Cable’s Charlotte operation.

Turbo download speed went from 10 Mbps to 15 Mbps, matching Fibrant’s basic Internet speed.

Turbo upload speed went from .5 Mbps to 1 Mbps.

“We don’t feel that’s much to brag about,” Paris said.

All Fibrant Internet speeds are symmetrical, meaning the upload and download speeds are the same.

Time Warner’s Standard Internet service went up to 10 Mbps for downloading and 1 Mbps for uploading.

To access the new speeds, customers need to reboot their cable modem by leaving it unplugged for about a minute.

The faster speeds will come with a higher price for some Time Warner customers.

The company has increased rates, effective in December. Customers will receive notification during the next two weeks, said Dan Ballister, director of communications for Time Warner’s Charlotte operation.

Customers who have Time Warner standalone Internet will pay more, Ballister said. But more than half of Time Warner’s Charlotte area customers will not see a rate increase because they have bundled services or special promotions, he said.

Time Warner also introduced two new services this week, Wideband and Road Runner Extreme.

Wideband goes 50 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream for $99.95 per month.

Extreme — which offers 30 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream — costs $64.95 per month when bundled with another Time Warner service.

While Fibrant has a faster upload speed, quick download is more important for many people, Ballister said.

“It depends on how the customer uses their Internet service,” he said.

Paris said consumer behavior is becoming more “upload intensive,” with more people using Skype, Facebook, Netflix and other applications that perform better with faster upload speeds.

“To me, it’s all about upload speed,” Paris said. “When you’re online, you’re constantly switching between pushing and pulling information, and you can only go as fast as your upload speed.”

City officials weren’t surprised that Time Warner announced faster Internet speeds the day after Fibrant launched, Paris said.

“We’ve seen this in every other city that has invested in fiber optics,” he said. “They are trying to match our speeds, but they can’t.”

Ballister said Time Warner’s new speeds were not in response to Fibrant but were part of a service upgrade for the entire Charlotte area.

Charlotte can thank Fibrant for Time Warner’s faster service, Paris said.

Paris said he is not sure how many people have subscribed to Fibrant since Monday. The city has a waiting list of about 260, he said.

Requests from the Post for information about Fibrant are now handled by Paris or the city public information officer, rather than city employees who run Fibrant.

For several weeks, questions about Fibrant left in phone messages and e-mails for Fibrant Director Mike Crowell, Fibrant Marketing Director Len Clark and Salisbury Management Services Director John Sofley have been answered by Paris or Karen Wilkinson, the city’s director of public information and communications.

Although Crowell, Clark and Sofley previously answered the Post’s questions about Fibrant, Paris said the city handles the Post’s Fibrant requests as it does for any other media outlet, by sending the request to the public information officer.

“It’s standard practice,” he said.

Contact Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.