Review by eggman9713 
UPDATED: 95 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 432 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Richland,Benton,WA
 $55 per month
 about 4 days
 "Good steady speed and low latency, excellent customer service."
 "A bit expensive but who isn't?"
 "Definitely the best in the area."
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I have never had cable internet before because in this area, it was always slow and high latency. Well, apparently they have upgraded service in a lot of areas here. In some neighborhoods their speeds are pitiful, but most now are EXCELLENT. When I called to set it up I was on the phone for less than 15 minutes with someone who was NOT from India. Three days later the tech turned on the system and delivered my modem. I already had cable service so that was not needed. For a while I had my cable modem hooked to my router and I was only getting 1 megabit instead of the 10 I had paid for. I was frustrated until i connected the modem directly to the computer. I had to authorize it with my account and then it started running full speed. Speed varies some during peak hours, but I can still routinely get 4 megabits, which is still faster than my 3mb dsl line I had. Latency is extremely low 20ms to DSLR servers in NY, many times. If you are in a neighborhood where the copper is good, definitely choose Charter over Verizon. And even if the copper isn't good, the way better customer service may be worth it anyway.
Update 09-01-08:
Figured out why I am still only getting 4 megabits. They had accidentally set me up on their 5 megabit service instead of the 10. I called them on a Sunday no less and in 15 minutes I am getting 9+mb/900k+ on the DSLR speed tests. Everything should be all nice-nice now, so I am just waiting for my first bill to see if they got it all right, which in the past when I just had cable service, is normally not a problem.
Update 08-05-09
Just had to upgrade to Charter's 20/2 tier as I was running up against the 100GB cap on my 10/1 connection. Took just 15 minutes on the phone and the upgrade was complete. Now I have 250GB a month to play with. While I do agree caps are evil, 250GB at least is quite reasonable even for a VERY heavy user like me. 100GB would have been enough for me if I didn't watch so much HD video (Do I really have to put a disclaimer in that it is legal HD content? I can't believe the world has come to this.) The last couple of weeks the service has been a tad slow occasionally, but that seems to have gone away.
I must say, despite being bankrupt and having one of the worst customer service reputation in the marketplace, Charter, in this areat at least, couldn't make this geek happier (other than lowering the price of course. Currently I pay $90 a month for analog cable TV and 20/2 internet. That is a promo rate for the upgrade in internet service, will go up to $100 in a few months. Still the best deal we have around here.)
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