Time Warner Cable has upgraded their NYC speed test so it has a maximum top speed of 100Mbps, instead of the previous top speed of 20Mbps. We asked the company if faster speeds were any closer, and were told they're getting "closer every day" and to "stay tuned." Insiders at Cisco working with the company have told us DOCSIS 3.0 gear has been installed in NYC for testing for months, and company COO Landel Hobbs recently confirmed NYC upgrades would be done by the year's end.

As for further DOCSIS 3.0 deployments, the company says they'll be "surgical" in nature. That's code for targeting areas where the company faces competition from Verizon FiOS, and can't get away with nursing last-generation infrastructure. According to Hobbs, the company faces telcoTV competition in 22% of its footprint; 15% AT&T U-Verse and 7% Verizon FiOS.

Verizon recently signed a franchise agreement to wire all of New York City by 2014 with FiOS, making NYC an upgrade priority. With just 7% of their footprint impacted by FiOS, and AT&T exploring metered billing themselves, you can see why Time Warner Cable isn't in a particular rush, and why they weren't particularly worried about customer defections during their recent failed attempt to hoist metered billing upon a skeptical public.

Via an official Twitter account, Time Warner Cable Vice President of Public Relations still spends much of his time defending the company's metered billing efforts. Speaking to the company's outspoken Twitter critics today, Dudley insisted "we don't think a huge number of customers -- aside from all of you, my favorites -- will pay for DOCSIS premium service." We'll find out soon. At least one company insider seems to believe the launch is a matter of weeks, not months.

Being the second largest cable company and having just one market upgraded in 2009 with relatively inexpensive DOCSIS 3.0 gear isn't particularly ambitious. Compare that to the number one cable operator Comcast -- who plans to have 65% of their markets covered by DOCSIS 3.0 by the end of this year -- and 100% of their markets DOCSIS 3.0 enabled by the end of 2010.