Difference Between Time Warner Cable & Verizon Fios

One visible comparison between Time Warner and Verizon is the type of cable served to the customer. Time Warner serves customers all products through a coaxial cable, a traditional copper wire that transmits signals using electricity. Verizon's FiOS service runs a fiber optic cable directly to your home, often referred to as "...to the curb." Fiber optic cables are more flexible than coaxial and use light to transmit signals.

The two companies offer incredibly fast download speed. However, Verizon FiOS is able to offer Internet that downloads at 50 megabits per second (Mbps). While Time Warner does have limited-availability "wideband" internet which promises the same speed, their traditional packages offer only 15 Mbps download at the maximum.

While both Internet connections are considered "always on," many ISPs use controls to limit how much bandwidth a user can consume. Because of this, many ISPs like Time Warner offer a "burst" speed, which is a download that goes temporarily beyond the regular maximum for a brief period at the start of any new, large download. Verizon FiOS claims to use no throttling or bursting, claiming the offered speed is always exactly theoretical download and upload speed their customers experience.

Due to the cost associated with deploying a new type of wire for each home, Verizon has not yet reached as many Internet customers and Time Warner. In 2010, Verizon was only offering approximately 16 million homes the opportunity to use FiOS. As of that time, only 3.8 subscribers were utilizing the service. By contrast, Time Warner was serving nearly 10 million customer with Internet services as of early 2011.