New Verizon FiOS Bundle Trounces Best From Time Warner Cable in New York City

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Update (8/7/2008): Well it didn’t take very long for FiOS to make an impact in New York City. Time Warner Cable has just announced that their All-In-One Triple Play Bundle with a 3-year agreement will be offered for $99.95 per month for year 1 and $119.95 per month for years 2 and 3. That’s $20 off of their previous (as recently as last week) lock-in rate for year 1, for a savings of $240. The broadband, TV and service bundle market in New York City are just starting to heat up, so stay tuned for more information.

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With Verizon’s announcement of their first FiOS TV and Internet bundles for customers in NYC, it’s a great time to take a look at the best triple play deals available right now to New Yorkers. As you will see below, Time Warner Cable is going to have to step up their current offerings in order to match Verizon’s new FiOS deal, as right now it’s not even close.

Price – Advantage: Verizon FiOS

FiOS Bundle – $94.99 a month
TWC All-In-One – $119.95 $99.95 a month

Right now the new NYC FiOS triple play offers $25 $5 a month in savings over Time Warner’s comparable package. $300 $60 in annual savings is not an insignificant sum of money, and if TWC wants to continue to compete in New York, it’s obvious that they’re going to have to drop their bundle prices.

# of HD Channels Included – Advantage: Verizon FiOS

54 – Verizon FiOS
28 – Time Warner Cable

This is another clear victory for Verizon, as FiOS TV offers nearly twice the number of HD channels as TWC. This is an area where Time Warner will struggle to match Verizon, as the bandwidth of Time Warner’s cable network may limit the number of HD offerings.

Internet Speeds – Advantage: Verizon FiOS

Up to 20 mb/s download and 5 mb/s upload – Verizon FiOS
Up to 10 mb/s download / 512 kb/s upload – Time Warner Cable

Again, this really isn’t closely contested and the actual speeds differences are probably even more extreme. Cable Internet connections are prone to bogging down due to their shared connection structure, which is compounded in a population dense area like New York City. FiOS’ Fiber-To-The-Home structure offers much greater bandwidth per user, which not only means higher top-end speeds, but less of the speed fluctuations that are so frustrating with cable.

# of On-Demand Programming Titles Available – Advantage: Verizon FiOS

400 (increasing to 1000 by the end of the year) – Verizon FiOS
100-150? – Time Warner Cble

We struggled to get firm numbers on Time Warner Cable’s On-Demand programming, but we believe that this range is accurate. Verizon FiOS’ 400 titles is definitely greater than Time Warner’s offering and includes much more HD On-Demand programming. So if you’re really into VOD, you’ll get way more of it with FiOS TV.

NFL Network Channel – Advantage: Verizon FiOS

This one is easy: FiOS has it, TWC doesn’t. If you’re not a football fan it may seem like a minor issue, but with more and more important NFL games being featured exclusively on NFL Network, many New Yorkers are exasperated with Time Warner Cable’s inability to get a deal done to carry the channel.

Both Dish Network and Direct TV have it, but satellite is not always an option in Manhattan and the other boroughs for residents of large apartment buildings. Even if you live in a smaller building with roof access, there’s a good chance your Southwestern sky view is obscured by larger buildings.

Availability – Advantage: Time Warner Cable

Well Time Warner had to win one, didn’t they!? This is an important advantage for TWC in the near term, as FiOS TV and Internet are only available to 20% of New York City households. But it may not hold for long as Verizon has pledged to be accessible by another 200,000 households by the end of the year and to completely wire all New York City homes with fiber by 2012.

The Bottom Line

Verizon’s FiOS bundle for NYC is a compelling offering that beats the best from Time Warner Cable on pretty much all fronts. It’s an exciting entry into a market that Time Warner has dominated for years. New Yorkers will surely benefit from Time Warner Cable’s competition with Verizon.