Oceanic Time Warner Cable will begin offering subscribers of its popular Road Runner service higher download speeds later this year as part of $140 million of upgrades it is making to its system.

The company said it will boost its top Internet connection speed to up to 20 megabits per second from the 15 megabits currently. The company wants to address customer needs of businesses, online gamers and people who watch video on their computers at faster speeds.

"There seems to be a mania now about getting faster and faster and faster," said Nate Smith, Oceanic president, who said the company will continue to offer service at slower speeds.

"We think we can get more customers at every level."

Internet customers have been leaning toward faster broadband Internet connections, with some Mainland companies deploying technology that provides download speeds of 50 or 60 megabits per second. A Pew Internet and American Life study last year found more people were acquiring broadband connections at home and of these, 29 percent paid a premium to get even faster broadband.

Currently, the fastest speed offered by Hawai'i's largest Internet service providers is the 15 megabits per second from Oceanic, which has 220,000 broadband customers. Hawaiian Telcom's fastest service is 11 megabits per second.

Hawaiian Telcom spokeswoman Ann Nishida said her company will upgrade to higher speeds, but declined further comment.

"It is in the plans," Nishida said.

Smith said the faster speeds are planned as part of a two-year, $140 million project to upgrade Oceanic's Internet speeds and high-definition television offerings. The Internet portion includes adding more nodes that serve various neighborhoods, upgrading equipment at the hubs that nodes connect to, along with other software and hardware improvements.

Oceanic will begin offering the 20 megabit per second service starting in the second half of the year along with rolling out its Road Runner Turbo 8 megabit per second offering statewide. Smith said no prices have been set for the faster service but could be in a range similar to what's offered now.

Oceanic's current price schedule ranges from $25 a month 1.5-megabit-per-second service to $70 a month for the 15 megabits per second. The rollout would be completed in stages, with completion by the middle of next year.

The project also will set the stage for future upgrades such as DOCSIS 3.0 technology, also known as wideband, that allows download speeds of up to 100 or more megabits per second. Smith said such DOCSIS 3.0 technology is still evolving and its implementation here may be at least a couple of years away.

The higher speeds with the current project may help elevate Hawai'i's lowly ranking when it comes to Internet connections. A PC Magazine survey released in December found Hawai'i's average Internet connection speed at 378 kilobits per second, or second-slowest in the nation.

That compared with 781 kilobits per second in Nevada, where the fastest connections were found.

Oceanic's efforts may also complement those by Gov. Linda Lingle, who last week outlined a plan to create a commission that would lead efforts to make Hawai'i a national leader in broadband speeds, prices, accessibility and usage.

The commission would have as a goal providing access to broadband communications for all people in the state by 2012 at speeds and prices that are comparable to those found in the top performing countries in the world.