Charter Spectrum → [Other] I wish you would expand to unserved area...

Charter techs, reps, and managers,

I'm moving 3 miles from your nearest node, to an area where families are forced to use dial-up or satellite. Can you look up my address and see if there is any way you could possibly expand your services? We have a signed petition by multiple homeowners who would LOVE to have high speed Internet. The road across from the node is unserviced as well.
Kayga Ave Morganton NC 28655
I currently have charter and love it.
Ill help you lay the hybrid coax and fiber personally, dig trenches, play with power lines, any of its better than trying to succeed academically without an Internet connection.

they can do it, but will expect you to pay for the feeder line, take a look at this thread here

"Charter wants to charge me for running cable"

You need to call Charter, use their chat service, visit a local office or write them a letter, because Charter has withdrawn their "direct" contact service here in these forums.

3 miles? might as well be 30 miles, ain't gonna happen in your lifetime.

It's going to take a LOT more than just "feeder cable" to get service 3 miles away.

After looking at the satellite imagery, there is no way you will ever see wired broadband service way out there with very few homes passed. It just isn't economically feasible This is why so many people choose their residence based on connectivity and services these days. Exede Satellite service isn't too bad from what I hear and if you are using it for academics and web access (not gaming or Netflix), you should do just fine with that.

your have to pay money lots of money to get it ran to your house probably several 100 grand is the cost of such a build out to cover your house at minimum since youed need a new node and everthing to be added out

in fact youed be far better off moving into a house with service over staying there it be cheaper

They would pick up over 50 accounts actually. That's the amount of households that have petitioned for service. It would roughly cost 250,000 to lay the fiber and install equipment. If each of the 50 houses pays them 100 bucks a month over the course of the year they could have the installation fee paid off within 4.25 years. With that being said, I'm working in conjunction with the NC Dept of Commerce Broadband expansion director in getting grants to help fund the project. I've seen less populated areas have cable access.

Charter could potentially pick up 15 customers if they would extend their line about 500 feet to get it into my subdivision and they won't do that. I asked what it would cost just to get it to my house (I'm a bit further down the street) and they wanted $8k to do the install. Going to the local office, calling, and using chat has been no help to me.

I live not very far from you (north of Asheville), so you may be dealing with some of the same people. I pay $110/mo to have unlimited 4g through US Cellular...it's an option if you're willing to pay for it. I get on average 20mbit down and 7mb up. I live pretty close to the tower.

I feel your pain. Good luck with the 3 miles, but don't hold your breath.

Hate to break it to you but if Charter didn't care before, they CERTAINLY don't give a darn now with their new, greedy CEO. If they can't make "easy" money on a project like this they won't bother with it.

I don't even have strong cell service at my house (1 bar in certain spots on verizon). How are your ping times?
Its a sad affair considering we only live around 7 miles from city limits.

Asheville definitely has decent wireless ISPs though, I tried to obtain service. Unfortunately they are one county away from reaching Western Burke Co.

I was actually given the name of the guy in charge of the budget and expansions for charter in neighboring Lenoir. Again unfortunately he is hardly ever in the office.

It's a business, not a charity.

Have you looked at »www.lightleap.net/ ? Looks like they cover the Morganton area. Not very fast speeds but definitely better than dialup. I don't know anything about them.

On my U.S. Cellular connection I just ran some tests and put them at the bottom of the post for you.

If you want me to do any more tests let me know and I'll be glad to do so. My wife plays World of Warcraft with no latency issues or anything.

Of course it is. But there are degrees of profit making.

The attitude the most recent CEO has is very narrow minded and short term oriented. I'd put money on it that he has an MBA or related degree. After all what does he care, he comes in rakes in as much profit in as short a time as possible (possibly damaging long term company health) and struts out with a huge golden parachute and plenty of perks left over. Yeah, he isn't alone but he is just another number cruncher and spread sheet pimp. LOL

In charters case there's huge losses and minimal losses, profits are almost non exisistant. They've had ONE minimally profitable quarter in the last five years:
»ycharts.com/companies/CH ··· t_margin

True but really is it because the company can't make a profit easily OR is it because the executive management is incompetent and short sighted?

Alex I'll take "Incompetent Manglement" for 1000!

No, it's just smart business. Expanding into areas that would take decades to recoup one's investment is moronic. Despite your personal-misgivings are about the current strategy of the company, spending ridiculous amounts of money to expand into unprofitable areas kinda goes against the whole idea of actually making money, which is what a business is supposed to do.

I the above goes against your claim that he's "very narrow minded" and "short term oriented".

It sounds like you're taking an opinion of one or more facets of the company and applying it to the whole.

You seem very defensive PasserBy. The executive offices probably aren't used to a "customer" being persistent with their dissatisfaction in the way I have been on the internet.

I'm not disagreeing with the way Charter is handling this particular case. They are actually correct.

However, if the customer(s) is/are willing to bear the entire cost of providing the infrastructure to an area I would hope Charter would agree to it.

Your dissatisfaction doesn't have any teeth.

Your rants don't show up on any reports and aren't causing any checks to be written. They're beneath the interest of the executives.

If that is so ,why are you and others, with an apparent deeper interest, responding?

I'm just one of the many users on this board getting tired of your pointless rants and empty threats to leave. How is this making any difference to Charter executives? We read what you had to say 4 months ago and it hasn't changed.

Just do it already and be gone.

That would make a difference to me and others. It'd also put you on a Charter report as a customer who left over cost.

My date of cancellation is next week, it's already set. But until then I am STILL a Charter customer.

I find it interesting that when folks disagree with Charter (and obviously there are many here) there are "pointmen" (not the mods) that want to lambaste and ridicule dissatisfied customers when they have every right to voice their concerns.

Just like us, you've been telling people who can't afford it to leave.

»Stop subscribing to greedy companies!
»Re: Charter - Cost Doubled - Can't reach by telephone to cancel

checked as a backup for the company I worked for - 7 miles to the closest feeder - 19K to run it the line to feed our building

»[HSI] Still waiting after 10 years

WOW!!! Maybe 4G isn't too bad! Hopefully I'll have 4G as a possible option in the future. Sucks I'm going to have to sign a 2 year contract with a satellite internet for now.... booo.

I'm working with a NC Commerce Broadband Expansion Director, he's working on drawing up grant proposals. Also, I've done the math it wouldn't take more than 5-7 yrs to pay off the investment ($300k MAX BEFORE grants). Thus I'm not asking them to be a charity, I'm asking them to take my money, state money, residents money, and start up a standard fee to put in a UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND like both the power company and telephone company charge requiring service to all households. (YES I KNOW THAT WAS GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENTED, but it does work).
However, I do understand business and you are right in that its a good size investment. As they would be the ONLY cable company to service the area on top of the only ISP above 3Mbps, it would IMO be one of those "spend money to make money" situations. I currently have charter (for the next 4 days, moving to the new house on Sunday) and while its $174/month, I LOVE my 100+Mbps down, 6+ Mbps up, and HD cable. I've had problems, but I would rather pay 174 for everything, rather than $150 for a 25g data limit satellite internet package + a separate DirecTV bill. My point being, MOST WOULD rather pay the one payment for a fast, reliable, internet connection w/out data limits and contracts. This leaves me to deduct through reasoning if MOST people would rather pay for Charter (or any other cable company that invested in the area), thus, guaranteeing them money, and quite a bit of money at that.

Once again, I'm not trying to dispute all your points, quite honestly, many of them are just; I'm just saying that its not a complete monetary loss.

****---Oh and yes I've been in touch with Lightleap Applerule. They have business speeds up to 150Mbps and pings under 50ms for around $130 and they are currently surveying the area looking for places to post some repeaters. They will be contacting me shortly with progress.---****

I'm just hoping we can get more 4g expansion and lower rates. I'm not holding my breath for cable in my area, especially considering Charter's financial state. I hope you do wind up getting somewhere with it though.

Good luck!

They give you inflated bullshit quotes to discourage you from doing it. Fiber is about $5000 per mile to lay, and cable is about $2000 per mile to lay. 500 feet would need a single amp, wouldnt need fiber, and could be done for under $1000. Call an independent contractor and ask them about how much it would cost to lay the run. If its a reasonable amount, contact charter, and tell them that you would get the run put in if they get the permits(or if its private property, get all involved parties written permission) and that the run will be to their nearest node, and all they would have to do is hook it up. See if they will play ball that way.

Where did you get your numbers from? A mile of hardline cable alone would cost more than 2000. Then add in connectors, hanging hardware or trenching, permits, and labor and its way more than 2000 per mile of cable plant. Fiber really isn't much different these for the outside plant install costs depending on the bundle count. It's the electronics on either end that make fiber cost more.

An amp, tap, hardware, and cable for a 500 foot run is more than 1000.