Convening in Charlotte—TWC Serves Up WiFi, Grits and Video

With the Democratic National Convention set to kick off Tuesday night, Time Warner Cable is taking advantage of its Charlotte system being in the spotlight for the week. And we’re not just talking about the fact that much of the convention will take place at the Time Warner Cable Arena.

“Probably the most exciting aspect of our involvement—and it’s not necessarily tied to the DNC, but the timing is in sync—we have deployed WiFi in uptown Charlotte as part of our involvement in the cable WiFi initiative,” Carol Hevey, EVP for Time Warner Cable’s East Region, tell us. “We accelerated the timing on our WiFi deployment plans here in Charlotte so we could have this up for the DNC. During the 2-week period (the week before the convention and during it), we’ve actually opened the network up so it’s available to all users. That investment, of course, gets left as a lasting legacy for our broadband customers here to use. We’ll expand that network over time to additional parts of the city.”

TWC deployed Ruckus Wireless’ ZoneFlex family of high capacity Smart Wireless LAN systems to deliver WiFi throughout the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte. It replaces a legacy WiFi network and covers everything from the 19K-seat arena to the locker rooms. In the Charlotte metro area, TWC is up to more than 90 hotspots, including Charlotte’s City Center and Midtown neighborhoods. TWC has also rolled out WiFi in parts of NYC, Southern CT, NJ, Philly and L.A., and has committed with MSOs to offer access to more than 100K hotspots across the country by year-end.

In other DNC news, Time Warner Cable greeted the 15K members of the media in town for the week’s festivities by serving as the lead sponsor of Sat night’s Media Welcome Party. The shindig at the NC Music Factory was a celebration of all things North Carolina, with a menu that included grits, barbecue, fried green tomatoes and even boiled peanuts. Performers at the “Time Warner Cable Uptown Amphitheatre” included country/bluegrass artist Kathy Mattea and Charlotte-born R&B singer/songwriter Anthony Hamilton.

Time Warner Cable has a large presence in Charlotte and in the state, with more than 5K North Carolina employees and 1.7mln customers. Charlotte is also home to TWC’s largest corporate campus.

And as with Bright House in Tampa during the RNC, Time Warner Cable is the official video service provider for the convention. “We’ll be providing video to all the official convention venues and have worked closely with the convention committee and host committee to make sure they have what they need from a service perspective,” Hevey said. The DNC has said it will provide unprecedented live streamed access of the Convention on DemConvention.com/live and though the Democratic National Convention Committee mobile app. The entire program will be streamed in Spanish simultaneously.