RCN Cable Modem vs. Time/Warner's Road Runner?

Jeffrey Altman asks: "I'm moving into a new building in the middle of Manhattan which has been wired by RCN and Time Warner. I would have figured that I would have the full selection of choices available to me when choosing Internet access. However, that is far from the truth. Since RCN wired the building for telephone service, Verizon is unable to provide telephone service. This in turn has ruled out the ability to use any DSL service since all of the DSL providers must use Verizon-owned lines. (RCN is not required to allow third parties to use their internal wiring.) I would have prefered DSL, but I am stuck with a choice between RCN and Time Warner. Does anyone have any recommendations for which to choose?"

Comments

Try to bargin and get the best deal

[soldack]

I know that RCN has been real aggressive with trying to break into the cable and phone markets. I used to have an erols account and I got swept up by RCN along with several other companies. They are one of the few companies laying their own cable lines in attempt to break the small local monopolies that cable companies have. I would call each and try to get the best deal. Although I only have dial-up through RCN, the service has been pretty good. They went through some glitches right after they got erols but since then things have been great.
Be glad you can get something. I live too far away for DSL and have been swapped from cable company to cable company with each new company pusing back the cable modem date. I really wish I had choice between cable companies and a single choice at all for high bandwidth. :(

I will never use RCN again

[wfrp01]

I was very excited about RCN moving into my neighborhood. A competitive telco providing a gamut of services! Excellent! So I joined the revolution!

Well, I've made bigger mistakes in my life, but this one was up there. Their customer service was terrible (really long hold times, phone calls weren't returned, scheduled service dates were missed, phone service was once down for days, our bills were often screwed up, promised DSL availability was repeatedly delayed, etc.).

Maybe this is all part of growing up. They have aggresive ambitions and aggressive marketing, but in my experience, it just wasn't there yet.

I hope that RCN, or someone like RCN, gets it right, because I would love to see more compitition in this market. But I'm not going to be first one on my block to stick my neck out again.

My advice: ask your neighbors. Find out from people _in your area, who are subscribed to the same services_ what they think.

Re: RCN vs Time Warner

[ssb201]

Both have trade-offs though I have found that most of them are based on the CATV service not the CM.
On the internet access side I have found RCN to be quite superior for the following reasons:
1. I get much higher speeds on RCN than Time Warner allows. TW is capped at about 1.5Mbit down and 20kbps up. I can get multiple 300KB/s downloads at the same time, with bursts of up to 4Mbit from internal RCN machines. My uploads appear to be capped at 50KB/s which is nice and heady for serving files.
2. RCN provides static IP rather than changing dhcp. This makes it much easier to host a site.

There are tradeoffs: RCN does not offer Digital Cable, RCN does not always use DOCSIS equipment (my modem is an old Hybrid), RCN's backbone is still promarily DS3 though they do appear to be ramping up to OC-3.

Re:You Choose!

[CritterNYC]

NYC is not most places. You can only get things in with a building owner's permission (or coop board), and that isn't going to happen unless the owner gets something in return. For instance, the block of apartments I live in, RCN cut a deal to wire it for cable and phone with the landlord... that's how they got in.

RCN and TW experience

[CritterNYC]

I have RCN, my neighbor has TW and has had it since it went into beta. Here are the two stories:

My Experience With RCN

RCN was pretty good initially. I got it soon after they were out of beta in my area. Then they grew too fast. Their entire network was overloaded for about a month. After a few hassles including 2 modem swaps (they use Hybrids which aren't that good) and numerous short outtages, I would say their service is now pretty good. I usually get decent speed (up to 3 megabits/sec at 3am), my ping times are usually good enough for online game play (under 250ms) which is a necessity for my occasional Subspace fix. I still get occasional problems. Their customer service isn't that great. I've been on hold an hour on more than one occasion.

My Neighbor's Experience With Time Warner

My neighbor got her cable modem last year while TW was beta testing. In the beginning, her speed was unbelievable, mainly cuz she was only one of a few people on the network. Now, it is similar to mine. She isn't really a techie, she mainly browses and sends mail, so she doesn't notice high ping times and such like I do. She said she's gotten good customer service when she called in with questions, too. Oh, and they do use better modems (don't remember which, offhand).

Random Thoughts

If anybody would like, I could do some traceroutes from both of our boxes to a few servers, test turnaround time and packetloss. Let me know if you're interested.

Also, you may wanna pick up the Linksys BEFSR41 4-Port Cable/DSL Router. Great unit. Two of my friends swear by them, mine is on the way. And you can update the firmware using a TFTP client from a non-windows box. Most of the others require windows to update. Plus, the manual is totally written by geeks with FAQ questions like "How do I get my quake server to..." No cheesy business questions here.

Re:You Choose!

[Technician]

If I lived there, I would look into restraint of free trade and monopoly laws and see if any of this is illegal. It does not seem right. Even a grass roots effort from the occupants may get somewhere with picket signs and such at the front gate. As always, include lots of media for best effect.

You Choose!

[Technician]

In most places, you can call up and order what you want. They just bring in their own new wire. I have ordered services in some rentals I have been in with no problems. I now own, so it's not an issue. If your building owner forbids this, then it's a time to move. Lower property value due to lack of quality services may change the policy.