Time Warner Cable said it has started an all-digital upgrade in the Kansas City area that will clear out room for faster broadband speeds and pave the way for an “enhanced” multi-room DVR that will help the MSO do battle with Google Fiber, which is matching its 1-Gig broadband offering with a pay-TV service.
Time Warner Cable has been using the “TWC Maxx” upgrades to introduce a new 300 Mbps (downstream) DOCSIS 3.0 service that replaces its former 50 Mbps or 100 Mbps offerings (as is the case in Kansas City) for no additional cost, an all-digital TV lineup, a bigger VOD library, and an enhanced DVR from Arris that sports six tuners and 1 terabyte of storage and runs a cloud-based version of the operator’s VOD portal.
In Kansas City, TWC said it has begun to alert subs of the work, estimating that it will begin to upgrade all customers in the region by this spring.
The operator completed TWC Maxx rollouts in Los Angeles and New York last November, and expects to have upgrades underway in Dallas and San Antonio “in the next few months.” Other TWC markets on tap for TWC Maxx upgrades this year include San Diego, Hawaii, Charlotte and Raleigh.
TWC, which is in the process of being acquired by Comcast, said its goal to roll out TWC Maxx to all its markets through 2016 “remains on track.”
