 Review by kba4 
UPDATED: 74 days ago
member for 8 years, 4137 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Canton,Stark,OH
 $112 per month
 about 14 days
 "when it's fast it's fast"
 "when it's slow it's slow"
 "pretty good value, 15Mbps/768Kbps on turbo"
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(ratings match consensus)
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update on 09/07/2009...
OK, in the 3 months with CATV that I've been here, I've had 3 different (very different) bills. Apparently, I had some promotional price from last year that no one ever informed me of and it has now run out. The first bill which included various non-recurring fees (move/transfer: $14.95, A/O New Installation - Extra Trip: $69.90) was over $300, and I paid it even after all the problems I've experienced so far with the transfer. Turns out I should have just cancelled the old service and purchased a new account... anyway last month's bill was $121.20, about where I expected it to be; this month it's $143.85 (RR is now $39.95 instead of $20, and the 'digital value service' has gone up to $29.16 from $26.10... the bill is way too high for what I need. I called to complain and ended up disconnecting TV service to save almost $40. According to the CSR my new bill will be about $104 with taxes. The way I see it, I'll just use RR Turbo to watch online shows and the many resources available online for news and entertainment (I'm not condoning anything illegal here, he-he-he) and build an HTPC for my living room and use Windows 7's MCE and an HD Tuner to watch anything important; otherwise I have movies and music here at home and can't justify an additional $40 for the 9-10 channels I watch while having to flip through the other 250 or so.
So I have Road Runner for $39.95 or whatever and Turbo for $9.95 more, and Digital Phone for another $39.95 or so. The internet is revolutionizing the way we'll watch TV and Movies just as it did with Music. So long as TW doesn't go forward with their bill-by-the-byte scam, I recommend everyone do what I've done and save some money in the process.
update on 07/30/2009...
back in June I moved from Akron to Canton, still in the neo.rr.com region. With the move I lost my digital phone phone-number and to this day the various departments at TW are still fixing the billing issue described next. The service(s) are still as reliable as before.
The service had been in my mother's name forever when I called and informed TW that I would be moving soon. They said that's fine, just that the two of us had to go to a local office and sign an Account Transfer form. It has taken over two months to get the billing straightened out, and I'm still exchanging e-mails with the support dept. ...
update on 01/24/2009...
I'm just updating my review as suggested by the dslr system. I have to say that RR has been almost 100% reliable over the past 203 days, and year or so before that. I do think that having Digital Phone gives one priority status on the network, even though the RR and Phone services are on different networks, the modem still has to jump through the TW network to go anywhere. Plus, I have the 'Turbo' service, which provides 30Mbps (no kidding!) for a few seconds when capacity is available, but almost always keeps the DL speeds over 15Mbps even during peak hours. My speeds rarely go below the advertised 15/768 levels. Well, 768 isn't entirely accurate actually, as the modem shows the config to be DL 15376384 bits/sec while allowing an UL of exactly 768000 bits/sec. See, DL has overhead figured in while UL is capped lower when overhead is figured, hence the best UL I've ever seen was around 750Kbps. Still better than the 384 from just a few years back. Here's hoping for another smooth year.
original review follows...
not a whole lot has changed, it's just time to update my review...
I'm writing a brand new review this time, because I feel TW has really come around and improved things, at least for the time being.
I've had RR service since it debuted in 1996. Since then I've seen it go from a multi-megabit-per-second DL and near 1Mbps (maybe more) UL, to a service just barely faster than the fastest DSL (defined as 1.5Mbps/256Kbps at the time) during peak hours, to what it is today: a pretty good value. Today my service runs at 15Mbps down, 768Kbps up, and costs $9.95 more per month than standard service. In the NEO.RR division, there are now 3 official levels to choose from: 768/128Kbps, 7Mbps/512Kbps, and 15Mbps/768Kbps. Also, if you complain enough, I understand that TW has a 96Kbps 'dataline' service available if you subscribe to digital phone.
And that's the other part of the review. I'd had Digital Phone service in the past, which was hot-wired by the tech into the house's phone jacks- the service didn't work very well with the old wiring in this 1940's house so I had to cancel it. I recently had it installed again, only this time just for one room (the phone is connected to the modem directly) for the time being. I figure one of two things could happen, assuming I continue to use TW for phone service that is. Either I'll add cordless handsets to the current line, or I'll use the second line on the modem and run CAT-3 to the rooms I want to service.
When I called to ask about pricing and available discounts on services, I started by saying I would be cancelling a few services to better afford my bill. The CSR adjusted some prices for me and today my bill is actually a little cheaper but lists more services. I originally had Digital Cable, HBO/od, HD service, a secondary box with remote, and RR with the +$9.95 turbo-charged service; this was about $130/mo total. Today I have all this, plus Digital Phone and the bill is still about $130 (and rates have risen over the past year too)- weird but no complaints.
I am quite happy with the quality of service (pun intended) given to my VoIP modem's access. I have had zero downtime since the new modem was installed. The internal web-interface on the modem has a page which confirms service level and it shows 15Mbps down, 768Kbps up. Depending on various other factors, I can hit nearly 2MBps download at times during typical HTTP usage, and am able to max out the 15Mbps (same number) in bit-torrent all day long. Too bad one of my favorite trackers was taken down last year though ;( Anyway the point is I'm finally getting what I pay for, and in fact I'm paying less while also getting phone service so it feels even better. I only wish I could get a deal on phone/RR without having to bundle cable too, I could probably save some $30-50/mo this way. I guess TW has to pad their 'video subscriber' count somehow though- the cable boxes in my house are rarely on unless recording something to DVR which is quite rare compared to the use that the cable modem gets for phone/net-access all day long.
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RoadRunner Cable
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