Review by GOD666 Location: Indian Orchard, Hampden, MA, USA Cost: $45 per month (12 month contract) Install: about 1 days Better than Comcast none as of yet (so far) Finally a cable company that delivers

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings above consensus)

This review will compare my experience with Charter vs Comcast since both providers are available in my area (I am very lucky to live in an area where competition is a factor).

CLIFF NOTES: I am a very happy customer.

Charter Communications where have you been all my life?

1) Charter does not bill a month in advance. You pay only for the current month

I had this problem with Comcast and it always felt (and resembled) to me as a scam. If I joined in January for example, I would be billed for January and February in January, billed for March in February, but if I canceled in February, you never get your money back for March (not even part of it). This became a bigger problem if you changed your service because you would be again billed 1 month ahead. Avoiding this was impossible because even if you did it on your bill cycle or before or after the next bill cycle you were still losing money.

With Charter, if you sign up for January, you pay for January. In February, you pay for February. In March, you pay for March. Your bill is exactly for 1-month service, not in advance. Which means if you sign up March 7th (as I did), you're billed for 1 full month (March 7th - April 6th). It works just as if I was paying for rent a home (your activation day or move in day is your billing day). My next bill will come on April 7th and it will be for April.

To clarify --

Comcast, for example, would have billed me in March for $50 for March and $50 for April for a total of $100 on my 1st bill. In April they would bill me another $50 for May's service that I did not yet even received. In May they would bill me for June's service. If I canceled in May, they would still keep my money for June (no matter when you cancel).

Charter, it is more like paying rent on your home or mortgage. You are billed for the current month (March 1st - March 31st). Or in my case, since I joined on the 7th, March 7th to April 6th. I am paying for my current month and not in advance.

2) Charter does not bill you for leasing their modem

Comcast would charge you $10 for their modem and owning your own modem did not mean you could escape that fee because you could just as easily be billed for your own modem. Correcting this problem was not always as simple as a phone call either and correcting it did not guarantee that it would not simply be re-added the following month.

3) Charter gave me a near exact time on when they would come to install

None of this between 8:00 am - 5:00 pm nonsense that Comcast gave me. Charter told me between 1:00 PM - 2:00 pm. That is 1 hour of wait time and availability. Best of all, I could pick the time that was right for me (between 1 - 2 worked).

4) Follow up on install

GOD, I cannot tell you how many times when I was with Comcast, as soon as the tech left the door (shortly thereafter), things would go to hell and I would have to call up and wait days (weeks or months) before another tech would show up.

With Charter, without even me asking or calling, another tech stopped by and asked if everything was OK and if I had any other questions or concerns. Even asked if I wanted (at my option), for them to double check the work.

5) A fair price without a bundle

I do not want or need TV or Phone. I will never order TV or Phone. It does not matter who services me. The idea of more doesn't please me... I know exactly want I want and I only want to pay for what I want. Period.

Charter's $44.99 for a 60 MB speed plan is wonderful. No hidden fees, no extra requirements, and no additional services which would add to that total... Which would not be saving, because it would be adding to the grand total. Comcast would always tell you that you were "saving" as your grand total continued to climb.

With Comcast for $60, I would have had the limited 12 MB plan. I'm getting 60 MB for less than I had to pay Comcast. After my 1st year, my plan will be $65 (64.99) which means I'll be paying $1.08 per MB as opposed to Comcast's $4.17 per MB.

Ideally, I value High-Speed Internet (regardless of provider) at about $50. So while technically, no provider in my area reaches my ideal price, I am getting a little bit more bang for my buck with Charter, so I cannot exactly complain (for now unless they jump the price more).

6) It is more or less stable

I am not randomly facing offline issues. Occasionally, I do get some lag issues, which has occasionally given some connection issues or timeout issues, but I am online and those issues are seemingly rare. A simple refresh often corrects whatever issue I face.

As opposed to Comcast which had me offline, a very noticeable lag and times outs were many. A simple refresh would often not resolve any issue.

7) A real person, not a computer, and a real person quicker

Calling up means speaking with a real person quicker.

Yes, I still reach the 1st menu that asks me which department I need (sales, support, billing, etc), but after that, I am connected to a real human being and not another sub-menu of choices. I am also not pushed into an automated system that tries to service me or re-directed to the wrong department only to wait another 40+ minutes on hold.

With Charter, I select the department and am connected to a real person. What is there not to love about that? A wait time of 30 - 60 seconds (a few short rings) and I'm speaking with a live human being.

8) No software required and no settings changed

I did not have to install any bundle-ware or junk developed by my ISP. It was not required (or offered) and the tech did not try to change my homepage or change any of my settings.

9) BONUS - Free security suite

I am getting tired of having to pay for a Security Suite (firewall, anti-virus, anti-malware, etc). But usually, your typical ISP either offers nothing or offers you junk (McAfee or Norton for example).

Comcast had Norton and to be honest it is junk in my opinion. You can Google search Norton and see how many people run into issues because of it. For example, a few years ago a Norton update blocked people from even accessing The Internet.

Charter offers F-Secure which is a premium product and highly rated. I have to admit, I have never bought F-Secure because I always thought it was a bit on the pricey side (a bit more costly than I would like). But the fact that Charter is giving me F-Secure for free, I cannot say I have a reason to complain.

Speed test:

»/speed ··· 1057.png

Attachments:

your comment..

Review by samthegam Location: Monterey Park, Los Angeles, CA, USA Cost: $100 per month No Cap

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings above consensus)

I got Charter in August 2011 and started out with Ultra it was 60/5 back then a few years later I got a speed upgrade to 100/5 then up to 130/5 then finally 300/5. The installation went smoothly as the previous tenants had cable already. For the most part the connection has been error free until January 2015 I started getting T3/T4 time outs which took many techs to diagnose the problem and the issue was fixed back in March 2015 and lasted about a year then the problem came back April 2016 and this time the technician installed a new drop and I have been problem free since July 2016. I have always supplied my own customer owned modem. Started out with the Motorola SBG6580 and currently using the Netgear CM600.

your comment..

Review by RobDSL Location: Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, CA, USA Cost: $60 per month Install: about 2 days No Cap Great bang for the buck in terms of download speed. Like all cable internet, the upload speed leaves something to be desired. Great service, much better then Frontier DSL!

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)

I must say I am sad to leave Charter! I have been a customer for over six years and rarely had a bad time with them. The last two years were completely flawless however. Between connection upgrades at the box and a reliable modem, I was very happy with the service. I started at a price of $30 on a one year contract (up to $50 after term) for 15Mbps Down/3Mbps Up. I was then upgraded during that year to 30/4, and after another 2 years, 60/4. Finally, a month before I moved and the Spectrum brand began being used, my area received 100/5 which was great. Mind you, during that time my bill went up a whole $5 and the price included the modem. I finally switched from (then Verizon's) Frontier's terrible DSL service of under 1Mbps and could not have been more pleased. If you have Charter/Charter Spectrum available GET THEM.

The only real complaint I have is the forced modem charge. In recent years, Charter bundled the price of the modem into the service so wether you used it or not, you got charged for it. Once I got my own modem (Moto/Arris Surfboard) the connection improved drastically. The speed didn't increase but the latency was greatly reduced.

your comment..

Review by paradigmfl Location: Daytona Beach, Volusia, FL, USA Cost: $59 per month Much better value than old Bright House monopoly Big corporate policies, less support options Happy to be freed from a worse company, jury is still out otherwise

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings above consensus)

This is going to be a short review for now because I was just switched over to Charter/Spectrum after they just bought out my old provider Bright House.

So far I like them better because they pretty much doubled my download speed and nearly my upload speed for about the same price as I was paying before and this is NOT on a promo either.

I am paying $59 a month, modem now included, and this gets me standalone standard internet rated at 60 mbps down and 5 mbps up. However I actually get slightly more than this.

The switchover from BHN to Charter in my case was seamless and done without any installation charge or truck roll. I was very impressed.

Other things like reliability, tech support, and customer service remain to be seen but the worse thing about the old Bright House was the lack of value and IMO Charter has helped to fix this. At least in my case. One negative I will mention is that it seems they removed their Direct support here on Broadband reports.

your comment..

Review by djk11 Location: Denton, Denton, TX, USA Cost: $40 per month Speed is consitent all the time. None so far Good value and rock solid service.

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings above consensus)

Service with Charter has been rock solid for the year and half I've had it. I do have to restart the router and modem about once every two weeks if it starts to feel like it's slowing down and that seems to get everything back up an running.

rradina join:2000-08-08 Chesterfield, MO rradina Member 2016-Sep-26 6:30 pm Restarting Modem and Router Regarding the modem and router, are these Charter supplied? If not, what brands? I have the Charter supplied Cisco DPC3008 w/Jan13 2016 firmware. No routine cycling needed. I have a Netgear R7000 WiFi Router. No routine cycling needed. No periodic cycling should be the norm for most customers. If you have to periodically recycle due to slowness, it may be the router more than the modem. Might as well check your modem's signal levels. I believe -10 to +10 for receive is OK and 55 is max for transmit. Here are my levels and I have stable service: Downstream Channels Power Level: Signal to Noise Ratio: Channel 1: 7.4 dBmV 41.7 dB Channel 2: 6.3 dBmV 41.1 dB Channel 3: 7.0 dBmV 41.5 dB Channel 4: 7.1 dBmV 41.6 dB Channel 5: 7.9 dBmV 41.9 dB Channel 6: 8.1 dBmV 41.7 dB Channel 7: 7.5 dBmV 41.5 dB Channel 8: 6.6 dBmV 41.0 dB Upstream Channels Power Level: Channel 1: 49.8 dBmV Channel 2: 0.0 dBmV Channel 3: 0.0 dBmV Channel 4: 0.0 dBmV If yours are close to any limits, do you have daisy-chained splitters? If so, try removing some to see if your power cycling problems disappear. If that works, consider replacing the splitters, coax connectors and/or getting a bi-directional amplifier. 2016-Sep-26 6:30 pm: · hey mods ·

your comment..

Review by bobjohnson Location: Spartanburg, Spartanburg, SC, USA Cost: $108 per month Install: about 2 days Good Value for the money, no down time Nothing really In Upstate South Carolina, Charter is where it's at.

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings above consensus)

When I moved to SC I rented a place that only had AT&T U-Verse or Sat co's and had become content with U-Verse speeds and poor PQ on the TV. In April of 2014 I moved to a new house in Spartanburg and decided to try Charter instead of taking U-Verse with me. Best decision I've made. When I called in to order service they had a promo with the triple play like always ($96.96 base price) but the rep gave me the HDDVR free for 3 years and locked my promo price for 2 years. On my original install they still had the 3 hour window for installs and the tech was on time and installed everything very quickly. I got a DPC3216 and a DCX3510M and other than the dinosaur software on the box and random signal issues everything worked well.

Fast forward to May 1st of this year and I moved to Union,SC. When I called to transfer my service the rep started my 1 year promo pricing over again (like it was a new account). This time the install window was one hour 8-9am and the installer showed up at 7:45am and asked if he could start early. The equipment that I had wouldn't transfer in their system so he gave me new equipment (Arris TM1602 and Arris DCX3520e-M). Same services and same software but the new MTA seems to work better than the old one. All in all I recommend Charter to the people in my area.

Attachments:

your comment..

Review by boybanker Location: Greenville, Greenville, SC, USA Cost: $190 per month over the years, has been consistent higher speed provider needs to examine overall cost structure In general, I'm satisfied with the service

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings above consensus)

Had major problems with connections dropped and TV problems. After two different techs, no more problems. Second tech followed problem back on lines to problem three blocks away. He replaced the switch/box/whatever and everything was good again. After 6 years of solid dependable service, after 4 months of exactly the opposite, I was strongly considering my options, but this guy fixed the problem and I'm happy again. Not impressed that it took multiple tries to get it fixed, but I am satisfied with the final result. After a few months of consistent good service, I even added telephone, which has been excellent. By adding the full bundle, I did save a bunch, but I shudder at $160/month anyway. Considering I get all channels, HDTV, DVR, HSI (5 meg.), and tele, it still is cheaper than unbundled.

Update 2016: Just dropped back tv service level and phone to save $40/month. Should have done it sooner, but...

Still best provider for our area.

your comment..

Review by hamlet Location: Fort Worth, Tarrant, TX, USA Cost: $63 per month Install: about 3 days Great speed and reliability None Good value based on combination of speed an price

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings above consensus)

I switched to Charter cable internet in the spring of 2012 after about ten years of having DSL from a major national phone company. The upgrade in speed from 3mb to 30mb download has been great and the price increase was minimal. I can now watch HD streaming movies on a handful of devices at the same time with no problem if I want. The install was very good. The tech showed up on time, was courteous and knowledgeable, and encountered no problems. My internet service is now rock solid and super fast. I don't use the extra service from Charter such as their email and Internet security suite. I also bought my own modem and router which the installer hooked up with no problems. I have not had any outages or slow downs and no reason to call for support during my time with Charter. I couldn't be any happier with my internet service.

Update 9/4/16 - I am still using Charter, now with a speed of 60mb download. The upload speed is still 4mb so that could be better but it doesn't impact me much. My connection is rock solid and speed is uniformly high. I am still very pleased with Charter's Internet service. I am more than happy to pay $62.88 per month given how much I use the service.

tasmithe join:2002-09-16 Graham, NC tasmithe Member 2012-Jun-11 7:06 am support That's good. I had them for a while a few years ago and they were bad in my area of NC...always going out and such. But--just wait till you call support and get the "off-shore" folks you can't even understand! 2012-Jun-11 7:06 am: · hey mods ·

your comment..

Review by DarkenMoon Location: Reno, Washoe, NV, USA Cost: $60 per month (12 month contract) Install: about 2 days It's stable and the speeds are good, even during primetime. If you want to upload anything quickly, good luck. 5 Mbps is the max (as of this writing) for a residential account. As long as you aren't uploading a lot, Charter will more than likely work for your needs. It's stable and has decent speed.

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings above consensus)

This is mostly from when I had Charter in the Saint Louis, MO area, cause I've only had Charter in the Reno, NV area for 2 months.

I had the standard Charter internet package, and it cost $59.99 a month. When I first got it, the speeds were 15 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. By the time I left Charter in the Saint Louis, MO area in 2016, I was getting 130 Mbps download and 4 Mbps upload. It was always stable and the ping times to most game servers was good, 15 - 20ms ping times to Chicago from the Saint Louis area. I never had any issues with the service, went down for about an hour in 2014, but that's the only time I can recall it was down for an extended period of time. Charter also seems to have decent battery backup for their systems. I was without power for 6 hours once, and with the modem and router having a UPS, I kept an internet connection the entire time. The modem I had was supplied by Charter, which was a Cisco DPC3010, which had 8 downstream channels bonded, and 1 upstream channel bonded. I later upgraded to a ARRIS SB6190 that had 16 downstream channels bonded, and 1 upstream channel bonded. Charter does not allow access to the GUI of this modem (as of Sept. 1st, 2016), and some people have reported issues with it, I had no issues, so please keep that in mind. My only real complaint is that Charter's upload speed seems to be stuck in 2008, which sucks for uploading videos, or backing up files off-site. The bottom line is that if you need something for day to day tasks that aren't too intensive, Charter will work perfectly fine.

My experience in Reno, NV has been good, however the speeds out here are only 60 Mbps download and 4 Mbps upload, compared to the 130 Mbps download and 4 Mbps upload provided as standard in the Saint Louis, MO area (unless you get the Ultra package, which is expensive). My latency to game servers and websites seems to vary from time to time, compared to the Saint Louis, MO area, where the latency was fairly consistent. Other than that, my experience out here has been basically the same as back in Saint Louis, MO area.

I attached pictures of my signal levels I had at both locations. The first picture is of New Memphis, Illinois signal levels, and the second picture is of the Reno, Nevada signal levels.

Attachments:

your comment..

Review by jazneo Location: Hazel Green, Grant, WI, USA Cost: $43 per month Get awsome faster internet speed None right now Best speed i getting my area

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings above consensus)

I final got faster cable internet in my area. Get 60mb speed and low 20 ping for online games it only take me 23 min to download 11gb steam game now that make me happy and i final do twitch video and stream youtube for my hobby

Attachments:

your comment..