Much More Than Just Cable TV
Bob Barlow
President of Oceanic Time Warner Cable
Looking back on the past 40 years of the cable business, it is remarkable to see what has happened to our industry. From being just a provider of TV channels, Oceanic Time Warner Cable has evolved into a high-tech communications company providing a diversity of signal protocols including HD and 3-D digital TV, local and long-distance telephone, Intelligent Home security and high-speed Internet. What is even more amazing is the unbelievable expansion of the Internet.
Remember when the thrill of getting online was simply hearing “You got mail!”? Since then, the Internet has exploded into a literal big bang of services and products: government assistance, retail department stores, electronic books, worldwide radio stations and streaming movies and TV programs.
A recent study indicates that more than 50 percent of Internet traffic in North America is video streaming. What that means is the cable industry has come full circle: from delivering TV channels through coaxial wire to delivering Internet video through optical fiber. This is the key to our business model in the future.
Since 2011, our Internet speeds have increased from 2, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 Mbps to 50 Mbps. And we are now proud to offer
the fastest Internet speeds ever in Hawaii: 100 Mbps. What can you do with 100 Mbps? It is not so much pure speed to one device, but providing speed to multiple devices at the same time. Wi-Fi routers, laptop PCs, smartphones, tablets, Blu-ray players, video games, Rokus, Internet-connected TVs, and the list goes on. While each device is vying for more and more bandwidth, we are busy engineering ways to increase our download capacity.
Look for even more speeds in the years to come: 200, 300 and 500 Mbps and even up to 1 Gbps. At Oceanic Time Warner Cable, we’re excited about what the future will bring.
