(Information obtained from "Spooky" at Wxperience)

"I personally have been fighting a battle with Time warner/Road Runner over this very same thing. Briefly here's the reason...."

"When the merger between Time warner and AOL began occurring in 1999, Time Warner suddenly and without notice capped the bandwidth. They had deployed the newer DOCSIS compliant Toshiba cable modem which came default configured at 2 MB/sec from the factory. The older Motorola modems that were deployed already were wide open running at 10 MB/sec. I was getting great speeds. Then the cap was put on.

In various letters to them and phone conversations with Time Warner by myself and a few thousand other people from around the country they denied having capped the bandwidth. Then they denied it publicly. Then they realized the error of their ways and admitted publicly that they had indeed capped the bandwidth because of the deployment of the new Toshiba cable modems. They said that they had hoped no one would notice, but we did.

I and others gathered proof of their lies and petitioned our states attorney general offices to launch investigations into their activity. Why? because we were all in areas that the initial roll out was in and our installation contracts specifically stated 10 MB/sec. At the time, Time Warner was also advertising it at 10 MB/sec. Not 'up to 10mb/sec' but were actually saying, advertising it, selling it, and putting it in the contracts at 10 MB/sec. Anyway - I put together my package (4 inches thick) with documented proof, technical data, and statements from Time Warner employees pointing out that the reason was not because of the new Toshiba modems but because of the Time Warner/AOL merger. Why you may ask? It has been confirmed from present engineers and ex engineers for Time Warner that part of the AOL/Time Warner merger was that the bandwidth would be reduced to accommodate the integration of AOL users to cable. the reasoning being, if they cap a person that was getting 10 MB/sec to 2 MB/sec they can add 4 more users without building new facilities or a tremendous outlay in capitol for the things needed to add more users. This is also the reason that they opted to have the Toshiba modes configured at 2 mb/sec at the factory vs. the normal 15 mb/sec they come defaulted at. Today they control this from the head end. They publicly said this after the affair was bought to light in late 1999 - early 2001. They also said that they would not honor their contractual commitment to those that had the old contracts with 10 MB/sec and actually dared us to sue them over it. So we did something better, we had various states attorney general offices launch investigations, and the FCC, for deceptive business practices and violation of various federal laws. there are, and have been, several investigations launched to date by various states and the FCC. Time Warner/AOL has to date not responded to one request for information by these investigating bodies. Also to date there has been no outcome of the investigations and they still continue.

Now how does this apply to you? Time warner and AOL both have their hooks in Comcast, and to some extent @Home. By now most cable modem subscribers have been capped across the nation. Those that aren't will be before 2002 is finished.

Even those with installs that were originally installed at 2 MB/sec under these conditions are getting screwed, your modems are capable of much more than 2 MB/sec, because of the integration of AOL users into the cable system. Think about it, your capped at 2 MB/sec and one day there's suddenly hundreds or thousands more users, potentially millions, sharing the bandwidth. Think about what's going to happen to your speeds. And guess what, if they do decide to increase the bandwidth again to account for this, your modem is default configured for 2 MB/sec. You think they are going to give you a new modem to use the increased bandwidth or change your cap limit without charging you an arm and a leg? nope.

This whole scheme ties in with their future tiered bandwidth thing. Your going to be charged more to get back the bandwidth that you originally had and bought.

And this dear readers is why you are capped now or why your going to be.

the pure answer to your question is - nope you can't do anything to get around the bandwidth limitation. Its controlled at the head end and short of you controlling that, nothing can be done. You can try and complain. Contact your attorney generals office."