Review by kd6cae 
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 7 years, 2308 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Riverside,Riverside,CA
 $72 per month
 about 1 days
 "solid 10mbps/1mbps speeds"
 "The service is a bit pricier than I'd like, otherwise it's OK"
 "Though price is a bit high, it's at least good to know Charter's offering a 10/1 tier"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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On July 18, 2006, Charter finally got out of the stone age
and offered some decent speed packages in the Riverside California market.
Until this time, the best you could get was 3Mbps/256Kbps! Now in addition to the 3/256 tier, a 5/512 and 10/1 tier are available. However unlike other cable providers, where customers were auto-upgraded to new tiers, Charter's new packages have to be requested by the customer. No automatic upgrades.
Speeds are so far, as advertised on the 10/1 top tier, with downloads peaking at 1.14 megabytes per second and uploads going at 119 kilobytes per second.
For the longest time, I wondered if Charter would ever get out of the stone age and offer any sort of higher tiers for customers. It was starting to look like they would never give customers more upload of any kind either, which caused me to leave Charter in favor of DSL.
Now that Charter's offering decent speeds that ought to satisfy even power users such as myself, I don't hate them as much as I did even just 3 weeks ago. The only complaint I have, is that anyone currently on 3/256, the top tier of Charter's for the past 3 years, won't be auto-upgraded to new speeds. You have to know the speeds are out there, and call charter to request that you be upgraded.
The price for 10MBPS/1MBPS is a bit high in my book, but worth it if you really want the speed. Congratulations Charter for finally giving customers what they've been asking for, even if it did take 3 years to do it.
Update: As of 6/15/2007, Charter's top tier is still advertised as 10/1, but many users like myself have gotten a bit of a boost in speed. The downstream is now configured for 11273KBPs while the upstream has gotten a smaller boost at 1049kbps.
we do from time to time have node saturation during the evenings, but it seems to only effect download speeds not so much on upload. My only question now is, with FIOS not far away in sections of corona I believe, I wonder if Charter will offer FIOS type speeds to their customers? I'm doubting it, but 2mbps should at least be a possibility I'd hope. Most users have gotten a nice promotion to the 5/512 service, and any motorola SB5100 series modem will for sure give you 10 meg and above service.
Followup comments:  stridr69
join:2003-05-19
San Luis Obispo, CA
| 10/1 Congrats on the new 10/1 offerings where you live.
Where I live(San Luis Obispo) we're to get the upgrade by 9/26.
Did you need to get a new modem?
I'm currently using an Ambit modem that I received back in Feb '03
It handled all the upgrades from 768/128 to my current 3/256 modes.
Just curious here...
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coastjam
Premium
join:2001-03-05
Atascadero, CA
 ·Charter Pipeline
 ·Vonage
| Re: 10/1 Congrats is right. I'm wondering also on the modem, currently using the Ambent for 3/256 in Paso Robles although as of Friday the Atascadeo office said the service would not be offered till Jan 07. I would also like to know how steady have your test results been? Could we get more info later on?
--
AH-1W SuperCobra its a Hellfire of a ride...ask the Cat.... | |
| | | stridr69
join:2003-05-19
San Luis Obispo, CA | Re: 10/1 I'll keep ya posted there, coastjam.
In fact, on 10/1/2006, I plan on visiting the SLO office about the upgrade-and, no, i'm NOT holding my breath!
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coastjam
Premium
join:2001-03-05
Atascadero, CA | Re: 10/1 thanks | |
| | | | | ak4725
join:2006-04-22
Riverside, CA | Re: 10/1 I recently updgraded to the 10/1 package down here in Riverside, CA. So far I'm rather disappointed as I've never seen it hit above 600 kilobytes per second. Its usually between 500 and 600. Good but not 10 mbps if you ask me. | |
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