ROAD RUNNER (ISP)

'Road Runner High Speed Online' is an US Internet service provider (ISP) focused on providing service over DOCSIS-compatible cable modems. It is a division of Time Warner Inc. and provides service throughout the footprint of Time Warner Cable as well as other contracting cable companies. Its services are currently available only in the United States, but were once also offered in Newfoundland, Canada.^[1]
Road Runner often competes with ISPs owned by local telephone companies. Its mascot is Road Runner from the ''Looney Tunes''/''Merrie Melodies'' series (all properties of its corporate parent). When the service first launched with a 1995 market test in Elmira, NY, it was called the Southern Tier On-Line Community,^[2] then ''LineRunner''^[3] (a moniker that was later used for VOIP service), before Time Warner Cable adopted the current brand name.

Contents

Tier service

Traffic/packet shaping

Companies offering Road Runner

Notes

External links

Tier service

To compete directly with less expensive DSL service, Road Runner offers a lower bandwidth package dubbed Road Runner Lite or Road Runner Intro for a similar cost, with lower download and upload bandwidth. The specific speeds vary, but the average is 768 kbit/s download and 128 kbit/s upload bandwidth. They also offer a higher bandwidth package dubbed Road Runner Turbo (formerly Road Runner Premium). It costs fifteen dollars extra per month or ten dollars extra if you have their All the Best package (TV, internet, phone), but offers up to 15 mbit/s download and 1 mbit/s upload.

Traffic/packet shaping

On June 6, 2007, Time Warner Cable reportedly announced that they would begin a national system-wide implication of a packet shaping system [1]. It allegedly targets high-bandwidth areas such as newsgroups, peer to peer, and torrent networks during hours of high usage. However, reports from end users indicate that the throttling of their connections appears to apply to all applications, regardless of bandwidth (including normal web surfing) or the time of day.

Companies offering Road Runner

★ Time Warner Cable

★ Bright House Networks

★ Insight Communications

★ Urban CableWorks

★ AOL through their broadband service

Notes

1. Via Cable Atlantic, now part of Rogers Cable, which provides service under the "Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet" brand.
2. Cable World, March 10, 2003
3. Time-Warner Announces High Speed Data Services

External links

★ Official Site - Order information and support

★ RR Online Portal - features Search engine, news, weather, sports and more all on one page (flash player required)