Road Runner High Speed Online is a US Internet service provider (ISP) which provides cable Internet service over DOCSIS-compatible modems. A division of Time Warner Cable, it also contracts its service to other cable providers, often in competition with ISPs owned by local telephone companies.
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Road Runner service was first launched with a 1995 market test in Elmira, NY, under the banner Southern Tier On-Line Community.[1] Later it became known as LineRunner[2] (a moniker subsequently employed by VoIP service), before Time Warner Cable adopted the current brand name.
Road Runner employs the Road Runner character from the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoon series as its mascot, a property of its former Warner Bros. corporate parent.
Road Runner tier data rates vary by level of service and area. The maximum advertised speeds [3] for these services are:
Road Runner® Lite competes directly with less expensive DSL service, offering a lower bandwidth for a similar cost. The specific data rate varies, but the average is 768 kbit/s downstream and 128 kbit/s upload. Road Runner® Broadband Turbo with PowerBoost® (form. Road Runner Premium) gives up to 25 Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload (in 16 second bursts based on network conditions). Cost and speed tiers vary by area, and pricing packages are heavily slanted to drive consumers toward the declining home phone and cable television services.
The new Wideband Internet and Road Runner® Broadband Extreme service tier offerings are a part of Time Warner Cable's rollout of the DOCSIS 3 upgrade in the following markets:
Despite raising prices of its internet service within the last year, Time Warner Cable announced in February 2009 that it would expand its bandwidth caps and overage fees into four additional markets by the end of the year.
On April 1, 2009, the cities to have metered billing were announced. In addition to Beaumont, Texas, the cities would be Rochester, NY, Austin and San Antonio, TX and Greensboro, NC.
These metered based billing plans were canceled according to Time Warner "due to customer misunderstanding"
Bandwidth is defined as a transfer rate measured in bits/second (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwidth_(computing) (comparable to miles per hour), however bandwidth caps refer to the total amount of data transferred (comparable to miles traveled, usually per month).
Caps would range from 5 GB to 100GB with no unlimited option. The bandwidth will include downloads and uploads. If a user goes over, they will be charged $1 per additional gigabyte. Time Warner Cable announced they would provide a meter for users to monitor their usage. The new plan was set to begin in the summer of 2009, however due to protests they had decided against the bandwidth caps. Currently, users have unlimited bandwidth usage. Time Warner would have offered unlimited data for $150/month had the plan continued.[15]
CEO Glenn Britt justified the new billing plans, claiming the infrastructures had to be continuously upgraded and users would pay for how much they use.
Facebook groups have been created in protest in addition to an online petition and a website dedicated to stop the movement.[16] Other websites have been recently following the Time Warner cap plans that were already following broadband internet providers metering and capping plans,[17][18]
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and congressman Eric Massa, both of whom represent portions of the Rochester, New York market that would be affected by the changes, announced their opposition to the plan and even went as far as to threaten legislation to ban such a scheme. On April 16, 2009, Time Warner abandoned the plan.[19]
Like Comcast, Time Warner Cable resells Clearwire Mobile WiMax service and bundles it with the company's existing broadband, TV and VoIP services. In October 2009, the company indicated that they'd be launching their incarnation of the service starting December 1 in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte and Greensboro. Later, the company indicated that they would also be launching the service in Dallas starting December 1. Pricing for the "up to 6 Mbit/s" service ranged from $39.95 a month to $79.95 a month depending on the chosen bundling options, and came in three flavors:
Road Runner Mobile 4G National Elite: gave customers unlimited access to both Time Warner Cable's 4G Mobile Network and Sprint's 3G EVDO network for $79.95 if the customer was a Roadrunner Standard or Turbo customer.
Road Runner Mobile 4G Elite: gave customers unlimited access to the Time Warner Cable 4G Mobile Network for $49.95 if already a Roadrunner Standard or Turbo customer.
Road Runner Mobile 4G Choice: gave customers access to the Time Warner Cable 4G Mobile Network for $39.95 if the customer was already bundling at least two Time Warner Cable services. The tier also capped usage at 250 MB per month.
Users get additional discounts if they are triple play customers. According to Time Warner Cable, the company will be expanding the service into Honolulu and Maui late in 2009, and into San Antonio and Austin in early 2010.[20]
MediaOne was formerly the largest of Time Warner's Road Runner partners, leaving the agreement when taken over by AT&T Broadband (subsequently absorbed by Comcast).
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