TWC Maxx

Oceanic Time Warner Cable customers soon will benefit from major enhancements that will transform your Internet and TV service as you know it today. Hold onto your seats for TWC Maxx. It features ultrafast Internet speeds, state-of-the-art TV services and best-in-class reliability. Full services are expected to be available on Oahu by the end of June.

Oceanic Time Warner Cable president Gregg Fujimoto states, “With TWC Maxx, we’re essentially reinventing the Oceanic Time Warner Cable experience. We will boost Internet speeds for customers up to six times faster, add to Hawaii’s robust TWC WiFi, dramatically improve the TV product and set a high bar in our industry for differentiated, exceptional customer service.”

Oceanic expects you to see speeds up to six times faster on your residential Internet plans (with no extra charges). If you are a Standard customer (15 Mbps), you’ll now receive up to 50 Mbps. If you subscribe to Extreme (30 Mbps), you’ll now receive up to 200 Mbps; Ultimate (50 or 100 Mbps) customers now receive 300 Mbps. You may need an upgraded modem to receive these new speeds, but you will be notified if it is required (no additional charge). The business plans will be upgraded as well starting this summer.

On the TV side, it features an enhanced DVR, on which you can record up to six different programs simultaneously, with the ability to save up to 150 hours of high-definition (HD) programming on its 1TB hard drive (twice the storage of the largest prior model). You’ll also have access to an expanded On Demand library featuring 20,000-plus titles.

Along with TWC Maxx, Oceanic continues to roll out TWC WiFi Hotspots throughout Hawaii. So far, more than 2,100 hotspots have been deployed. They are located in various businesses including restaurants, cafes, hair salons and doctors’ offices, as well as beaches and public parks. They also are available at public venues, such as University of Hawaii’s Stan Sheriff Arena and Blaisdell Concert and Exhibition halls. I take advantage of these all the time, and they are very helpful when you’re out and about, and do not want to waste your smartphone’s data resources.

***

Personally, I haven't been impressed with Oceanic internet.  Sure the rated speed may be faster, but it seems not to be steady.  Often when I'm at my mom's place watching Netflix of whatever, the service seems to stall for a number of minutes.  But when I switch to the slower HawaiianTelcom network, the service is steadier and more reliable.  Same with the hotspots, I seem to connect the first time OK, but then after a while the service seems to degrade and I lose response.  Of course, this is anecdotal, but that's what it seems to me.

***

Here's the disadvantage of cable:

"You share the available bandwidth of a single cable line with others in your neighborhood. The more people using it at the same time, the slower the performance."

On the other hand, the upload speeds of DSL is much slower.  So if you're routinely sending large files, cable is the way to go.