If you use TWC for your internet service, you probably received a post card saying that you will be charged a $3.95 per month modem rental fee. This is essentially a gift to Time Warner. If you currently have a DOCSIS 2.0 modem, you can buy your own 2.0 modem for $20 (used) to $50 (new). (There is a healthy used market for the Motorola DOCSIS 2.0 modems.) The DOCSIS 3.0 modems are more expensive, about $100. In this case, it might pay to wait until the prices of these modems drop before buying your own. Make sure you return your leased modem to TWC, or you will continue to get billed for it.
In any case, you don’t need to buy the wireless versions of these cable modems if you already have a wireless router. You’ll only be wasting your money on functionality that you probably won’t use.
Update: Here’s a New York Times blog post on the fee. Here are the approved modems.
Update 2: I purchased my own modem and returned TWC’s modem. TWC still billed me the leasing fee. As Chandler Bing would say, could Time Warner’s customer service BE any worse? (The reason I was billed, according to a rep, is that my modem return was still in the pending phase of their system – four days after the fact.) In all fairness to Time Warner, Linda in customer service has helped me out a couple of times. She seems to be one of the few reps who does a good job. Thanks Linda.
How is FiOS’s customer service?