Speeds can vary widely hour by hour, even minute by minute. Road Runner advertises speeds up to 50 times faster than a 56K modem, but it's a level that's rarely if ever achieved. Recent speed checks on a home computer calculated speeds 15 to 25 times faster than a 56K modem. Road Runner also has taken on some bigger customers, such as the Pinellas County school system and the city of St. Petersburg, but Bailey says those have not affected system performance either. Too many subscribers is not the only potential problem.
Some people hog the system.
Time Warner in New York reported that 6 percent of its subscribers account for 50 percent of the system's use, and in some other areas 4 percent or 5 percent of customers can be responsible for up to 85 percent of system use. That's why cable companies bar users from hosting Web sites or other commercial uses on residential cable connections. The company also will throw in the modem and the network card needed for your computer if you don't have one. But the package comes with Road Runner's Internet service provider. Verizon offers its WorldWind cable modem service in parts of Pinellas County but is trying to sell WorldWind as well as americast, its cable TV subsidiary.