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Time Warner Cable: Choosing internet speed

fleurya

fleurya


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Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac 2.7GHz Core i5, iPhone 6, iPad Air 2, 4th gen Apple TV
I'm moving this month and the new location has Time Warner Cable service. I'm trying to figure out which level of internet service to get. Their choices are 768kbps, 2mbps, and 7mbps. I really don't do any major downloading other than an occasional iTunes movie and would really just want enough speed that I could stream the occasional HD video or play an online FPS game.

I think 2mbps would be enough and I could save $10 a month for the next level up, but I'm not sure. Any current Time Warner customers that can give me their opinion would be appreciated.
 
bobtomay

bobtomay

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Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
2mb is probably enough for most. I'm currently getting 30mb speeds available through TWC where I'm at on what is suppose to be a 20mb service. I do see 1.8-2.2mb speeds for single movie/tv show downloads from iTunes and sometimes faster with Amazon's unbox. Streaming netflix and hulu are probably fine at 2mb although I haven't really checked the speed there. What I've seen with iTunes is that a 2mb speed will download a HD movie in about half the time it takes to watch it. So, typically you can start watching within a minute or so and have no issues unless their server is overloaded (which does happen on occasion).
 

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