Suddenlink this week officially announced they're bringing DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades and speeds up to 20Mbps to to select areas of Texas. According to the provider, the deployment will service 100,000 customers, or about 8% of Suddenlink's 1.3 million residential subscribers. Suddenlink offers cable broadband service in Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia. Just last month the company began offering users a usage monitor to help consumers track usage, a move that could ultimately result in caps and overage charges. The carrier consistently brings up the rear in our user review rankings, something reflected by how hard it is to get standalone broadband pricing information out of their website (try Lubbock, TX zip code 79401).

Cable provider Suddenlink is one of the most poorly reviewed cable operators in our user review rankings, consistently battling with Charter Communications for the least popular cable broadband experience. Now user iansltx writes in to note the carrier has deployed a usage monitor that could be a prelude to a shift to metered billing.

Suddenlink Communications continues to lose weight. After the provider shed some of their Virginia systems to Jet Broadband over the summer, the company now confirms that they're looking to offload some 150,000 subscribers in Texas and Oklahoma. The company also recently sold some 17,000 customers in Bakersfield, California. Suddenlink has beaten out Charter to be the worst-reviewed cable broadband company in our review index.

When Suddenlink announced last month that they would be doubling their download speeds, they failed to provide information about what the new services would cost. The staggered deployment of faster speeds is about to reach Eastern North Carolina where existing Suddenlink customers will be automatically upgraded to the new speeds at no cost.

Suddenlink, which just increased their download speeds in some areas, is making customers even more happy by bringing Digital Phone services to new areas. They’re now providing voice to 75% of their customers, up from only 15% at the beginning of this year. The news from our forums is that they’re offering bundle packages for the phone services, cable and Internet which cut users’ monthly bills by about $50. The rates are temporary of course, lasting about a year, so customers wonder if they’ll see a hike after that but overall are happy with the new service.

Suddenlink Communications is bumping up downstream speeds for users in several markets. The company is doubling the speed of their "premier" tier to 10Mbps/2Mbps from 5mbps and is also doubling the speed of their "preferred" tier to 8Mbps/1Mbps from 4Mbps.