 Review by TheSaint 
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 7.8 years, 1241 visits, last login: 70 days ago
 Atascadero,San Luis Obispo,CA
 $35 per month
 about 14 days
 "Great d/l, reliable, mostly good techs, short wait times w/ TS, nice hold music, no long-term contract unlike most DSL providers"
 "Upload slow compared to d/l, no ftp/server hosting allowed, expensive compared to many DSL plans, lame $10 no-tv fee"
 "Great for browsing, email, downloading, games, think twice to use to upload, go 4 it in Atascadero unless very close to CO"
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(ratings match consensus)
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***Updates at the top marked with***
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===[Current package is 10meg down/1 meg up]===
(This update is posted on 8-6-2008)
I've switched from the 10/1 meg package to the 5/1 meg package as Charter has refused to provide more upload speed on the higher tier. As the account is not used for heavy downloading, I couldn't justify the extra cost. Uptime, speed and customer support have remained very solid after making the switch to the slower package. Charter remains a much better ISP in Atascadero than they were several years ago. To their credit, they've make tremendous strides!
The savings for moving from 10 megs to 5 megs is $60 to $35.
===[Old Package was 10meg down/1 meg up]===
I recently called in to find out about acquiring more upload speed. Charter gave me a boost to the new 10/1 package. Its currently $35 per month and will be 60 after the promotional period ends. So far the down and up speeds have been within specs. I'm happy, but would trade a few of those down megs for up. Oh well, can't win 'em all. Thankfully they've upgraded the upload somewhat. The service remains very reliable with hardly any outages. My only other gripe is that if you don't have the tv package then your rate is 10 bucks more.
===[Current package is 3000 down / 256 up]===
!!!Original review is marked with!!!
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Update 4-21-07:
Charter finally updated us to five meg service. We are now getting 5000/512 on our home line. Actual speeds are within 85-90% of advertised. The price has gone up though to 53.99 per month. Included in the price is a $10 fee for not subscribing to the TV service. Talk about stabbing you in the back! Uptime has remained rock solid however. Overall I'm fairly happy with the connection, but the price is way too high compared to the speeds and restrictive TOS and AUP.
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Update 10-14-05:
Several more months of solid uptime with only minor outages. Speeds consistently stay within 85% of advertised limits. I'm still frustrated by the high price of the service compared to the speed, and the non-bundling $10 "cable access" monthly fee. I don't want their TV. I want cheap, fast Internet. For all the gripes about Charter though, SBC has dropped the ball considerably worse. I've been in this area for ten years now and SBC refuses to get a CO closer than 18k feet. Charter it is for better or worse, dial-up is no option after being exposed to broadband.
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Update 7-5-05:
It seems like someone shut off the spam filtering at Charter. I have a few @charter.net emails that have been flooded in the last week with spam ads for pills, bill reduction, credit cards and a host of other junk that I don't want. Reading the headers shows that they are all being sent to @charter.net emails (several dozen @charter.net addresses in the "To" feild). They need to clean up their spam act, I've already taken steps to find another email service.
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Update 6-1-05:
Seems that the speed issues of earlier have gone away. DNS seems to resolve fairly quickly. Pings in online games are decent, nothing much to report as of this time. All I could ask for is an upload speed increase or a price drop for those of us without their tv service.
Perhaps the DSL CO will be less than 15k feet away and will give Charter a run for the money in terms of speed/price/value. Other than these few odd ramblings, Charter has remained solid for the past few months.
One other item of small note. My IP seems to stay the same for long periods of time, despite the fact that [i]is[/i] a DCHP system. I'm currently working on 17 days straight without a change in IP, it is almost static.
Charter's TOS doesn't allow server hosting, but it does seem like they have enough IP's to go around that they don't release every few hours which is nice.
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Update 3-9-05:
Speeds have been dropping a bit recently, getting about 2500 downstream and about 210-215 on the upload. Nothing drastic, however I used to get right next to the caps allotted (3meg/256k). This is minor complaint.
My bigger issue would have to be with the Charter DNS servers flunking in and out during the last three weeks. Thankfully it seems to be resolved now, but during the downtime it was near impossible to browse any sites, DNS working for five minutes and then out for five. Completely random.
Another disturbing factor is that Charter is now (starting with this month's invoice) going to start charging an extra $10 hookup fee if you don't subscribe to at least their basic cable TV service. I really have minimal interest in watching their programming, but may just succumb and purchase it for a few shows.
Still, if one decides to get Internet-only services, the monthly cost is a pricy $49.99. By industry standards this is quite expensive for the speeds. If they gave you more bandwidth and perhaps an option to run your own server, then it might justify the price.
Unfortunately DSL is still very spotty at best in many parts of Atascadero, with CO distance still playing the major factor in lack of deployment. As broadband Internet is a must at least for our family, we won't be dropping Charter anytime soon. This doesn't mean that we have shinning praise for them as of late, however they do provide the best bang (not best bang for your buck) for what's available.
(I've updated the price as $49/month, assuming that you may not want their TV service).
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Update 6-23-04:
The pings for online games seem to be better as of late, I must say Charter has done wonders in the past few months to keep me happy. Faster d/l and u/l, better pings, lowered the price basic service and had little to no downtime at least as far back as my last update. Keep up the good work Charter!
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Update 3-31-04:
Charter has upgraded much of the San Luis Obispo County area with 3mb down/256kb including Atascadero. Speed tests indicate that the d/l speed is slightly over 3mb and the upload ranges in the 230'ish area. The additional download speed is welcomed, but the real plus is the doubling of the upload speed that tickles me pink. I'd still like faster, but this is a step in the right direction for sure. Until SBC rolls out some massive upgrades, most of N. Atascadero's best choice for broadband continues to be Charter. Uptime continues to be rock-stead, the upgrades went without a hitch. Overall things look to be improving around here in regards to Charter. Hopefully this won't mean a price hike is comming soon! 
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Update 3-24-04:
Talked with rep named Jim out of the So. California call center, really a cheerful and helpful chap considering he's working the graveyard shift! He mentioned that I wasn't able to upgrade to the 3mb/256k package that has been dicussed on the Charter DSLR forums. Just keep an eye out for it in the statement, that was his advice. 
Once again, this gentleman was exceptionally kind and cheerful considering he was on the long end of a nine hour shift working help desk for a tech support job, not an easy task indeed. I'm impressed.
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Update:
When charter upgraded my area to 2mb, I wasn't notified of it via email or snail mail. If it wasn't for DSLR forums, I would have never known to call in to activate the new speeds. That's a thumbs down for a company that has the term "communications" in its name. Once again, Charter has its fair share of good points, but when they do stuff like this it makes you want to pull your hair out. :P
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Charter has been a very reliable ISP out in our area in terms of downtime, I've been with them for a few years now and outages have never lasted longer than 24 hours. The package I have was originaly 768k/128k (down/up) and was upgraded for to 2mb/128k recently by Charter.
The reps I've talked with on the phone about a year ago sounded quite clueless and in some cases knew nothing about what was going on with my computer or Charter's network. That was a year ago, from time to time I call in with fake problems to see how they handle different situations. To their credit, the managers of tech support centers have vastly improved the average rep in terms to knowledge and presentation. It used to be that you would call into the tech support number and get the same ol':
"Reboot your modem and everything will be fine."
Thankfully, they actually have some hardware and software geeks (the right type of people for the job), working the phones. A good portion of them were able to identify conflicts with my router and modem firmwares and seemed to be fairly well-read in terms of network infrastructure and how the consumer plays into the grand scheme of things. Anyways enough about the techs, the poor people are hassled all day with the same questions. Another plus going for them is that they play peaceful classical music while on hold, which is very much apprciated instead of having to listen through recycled pop music. Nice touch, considering the wait time on hold have never been longer than ten minutes, but its still appricated.
Pings to most west coast servers are on the high side sadly, 150-200 in most of the games I play, there really isn't much you can do with the lag, but until Charter gets some better tiers or figures out what's going on with their less-than-game-friendly service, I can't whole heartedly recommend them for gamming.
Two other minuses:
The Charter TOS won't allow you to run an ftp server from your home connection, plus the 128kb upload speed is S-L-O-W.
For media professionals like myself, I upload lots of files to servers and transfer projects to clients via the web, it takes a long time to do that over a 128k line. If I u!pload a 700mb video presentation for one of my clients, its going to take about 20 hours to complete. To be truely small-business friendly Charter will need to upgrade this to something faster than its current leve. Hopefully the conversation I had with a Charter tech recently ( »Upload Speed? ) will come true and they'll bump the upload speeds up a bit.
Also, the other gripe about not getting to run an ftp off of your own line is a bit annoying. Not everyone that is into P2P or file sharring/hosting is into warez or illegal mp3's.
All in all, Charter is a good but not great ISP. Their techs are fairly knowledgeable know compared to what they used to be several months ago, but they are still yet to upgrade the upload speeds and demands for ftp hosting as requested by many DSLR members. To earn a stellar rating they will need to improve in these areas.
I'd recommend them if you can't get DSL in your area or are interested in just ditching dial-up and would like an easy to use ISP for simple tasks, however power users may want to consider other companies for the reasons I outlined above. I'll try and follow through with the upgrade of the upload speed if they are willing to perform it in my area.
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