Charter Digital "Spectrum" and Speed Upgrades - Residential
I live in the Hickory, NC area and I received my digital upgrade information in the mail last night. They are going all digital in my area next month. They are providing customers 1 STB or 1 CableCard for 12 months if you already have a STB or CC or 2 free STB's for 12 months if you dont have any right now.
The letter also said to tune into Channel 11 (Analog) to get more information. On that infomercial it mentioned Charter will be doubling internet speed towards the end of this year (dont know if that means end of 2013 or 2014). Additionally I dont know if doubling speeds means both on download and upload? I hope they double the upload, that is needed. Anyhow, I recorded the infomercial with my phone (sorry for the bad quality) and put it on YouTube, here:
Well I have Charter but it is in No Man's Land, I'd be lucky to see this by the end of 2014. I'd love to have doubled speeds, it might eventually get me to what I'm paying for right now.
While they are technically doubling the internet speed, the 30 meg service will be the standard now. They are changing the basic 15 to be the basic 30. Big whoop. If you are paying for 30 now, you're still going to get 30. If you are paying for 100, you won't be getting 200.
They told me in my area I'll be getting this by the end of March 2014 (which probably means 11:59 PM December 31st 2014), along with 50-60 channels converted to HD. Which probably means more shopping channels, more religious channels, more channels where people redecorate each others homes.
They never offered 15meg in my area, 30meg was standard for the long time. Maybe this is for his market only, but if his market is 30meg, this is significant upgrade.
The sales rep made a point to say they are doubling internet speed in my area when I asked about that. She said the speed would be doubled in my area to 30 meg. Doubling it to what I already get. I think the 30 meg service is standard. I guess I'm confused as to why they are making out like this is a big deal, calling what I already get an upgrade.
Just got a new modem from them today, the tech told me, that all plans will be 30mbit and nothing lower and to expect higher speed for the top tier (30mbit right now). so well see. this area has 70 analog channels left and a cluster of system tied together, because of being bought so many times.
Part of their deal with the FCC regarding their cablecard waiver was that they would go fully digital in 100% of their markets and push 100mbit broadband to some higher percentage of their footprint than it is now.
30/60/100 seems to be decent enough speeds. Sure, it's not Google speeds, but honestly the vast majority don't need that. I'm a tech type that works from home and I don't need that.
What I *do* need is at the very least 10-15 megabits upstream to go along with that 100 megabits downstream.
I agree, I hope they miniumally double the upload from 4 Meg to 8 Meg while they are at it. It is painfully slow to upload HD YouTube videos right now. 10-15 Meg would be nice but I doubt it will happen soon.
Since they're advertising 200+ HD channels now, and none of the markets have seen this (the all digital markets thus far have ranged from 150 to 185), I'm curious to see what channels will be added.
If they send it via mailings, please post it here. I'd like to see it. It hasn't been updated as of yet on the Charter Digital Now website for St. Louis or for points further east than Asheville in NC. According to the site, the long neglected Eastern NC and Suffolk, VA systems are included in this digital conversion. Those areas never got SDV, and only have 30-40 HD channels at best, some have none.
Last night I went to Zap2it.com and they already have the new lineups for South Carolina and Michigan available if you put in a local zip code and pick the rebuild option.
Fort Worth is missing some channels that LA has, like BBC World News. The SC and MI lineups appeared to match the LA lineup (they had BBC World News for example)
I did a little digging and Fort Worth has RFDTV, whereas SC and LA don't, so I guess they are doing some regional variation. I hope when it makes it around to Birmingham we get the LA lineup and not the Fort Worth lineup
I've seen all these, one of the new MI lineups (Mount Pleasant) launches Encore Classic HD, Encore Suspense HD, MoviePlex HD, GAC HD, INSP HD, Daystar HD, ShopHQ HD, Jewelry TV HD and FamilyNet HD, but those wouldn't get anyone to 200, so that means more launches have to be coming.
So, How long do you think it will take Charter to drop the 30meg plan altogether and FORCE people to pay more for something they don't need or can't afford, again?
New HD Channels Added from the all-digital upgrade, this does not include existing HD stations. A lot of the premium channels they added the West signal, which i really don't count because I already had the HD East signal available. But hey they have Playboy TV in HD now!
Basic HD: QVC HD HSN HD CSPAN HD Univision HD TV GUIDE HD Jewelery TV HD TBN HD INSP HD Expanded Basic HD SportSouthHD Regional Sports Extra Games HD CSS Sports HD Charter Select HD IndiePlex HD RetroPlex HD Movie Plex HD Digital Tier 1 HD Family Net HD Digital Tier 2 HD BBC World News HD UP HD Digi Tier 2 HD/Latino View HD UniMas HD Digital View/Charter Select HD Bloomberg HD Hallmark Movie Channel HD Digital View/Digi Tier 1 HD The Hub HD Sprout HD Nick Jr. HD ShopHQ HD Nicktoons Network HD Military Channel HD Fox Business Network HD Fusion HD ReelzChannel HD GAC HD Digital View Plus/Digi Tier 1 HD Fuse HD TV One HD BBC America HD FX Movie Channel HD Sundance HD Digital View Plus/Digi Tier 2 HD AWE HD Digital View/Digi Tier 1 HD, Sports View/Digi Tier 2 HD Fox Sports 2 HD Latino View HD Fox Deportes HD Sports View/Digi Tier 2 ESPNews HD WFN HD Outdoor Channel HD Sportsman Channel HD Mav TV HD FXX HD HD Premium HBO HD - West HBO 2 HD - West HBO Signature HD - West HBO Family HD - West HBO Comedy HD - East & West HBO Zone HD - East & West HBO Latino HD - East & West Cinemax HD - West MoreMax HD - West ActionMax HD - West ThrillerMax HD - East & West 5StarMax HD - East MovieMax HD - East OuterMax HD - East Max Latino HD - East Showtime HD - West Showtime 2 HD - West Showtime Showcase HD - West Showtime Beyond HD - East Showtime Extreme HD - West Showtime Women HD - East Showtime Next HD - East The Movie Channel HD - West The Movie Channel Xtra HD - West Starz HD - West Starz Comedy HD - East Starz Edge HD - East Encore HD - West Encore Action HD - East Encore Classic HD - East Encore Suspense HD - East Encore Drama HD - East Epix HD - West Playboy TV HD
So, How long do you think it will take Charter to drop the 30meg plan altogether and FORCE people to pay more for something they don't need or can't afford, again?
Internet access isn't Obamacare, no one is forcing you to buy anything. Feel free to cancel or move to an alternative. Also feel free to stop parroting the same complaints over and over and over.
mixdup: You took the words right out of my mouth.. so goddamn tired of seeing cork1958 reply to EVERY thread about speed increases, complaining that he doesn't want anything more, and that noone else should ever need anything that fast.
That list of HD additions fills in the few gaps that I miss since I dropped DirecTV. Given that I'm spending about $80 less than I was when I had DirecTV, I'll take it. Even a few channels in there DirecTV doesn't have. Not quite as good as Time Warner/Bright House, they have basically the best channel lineup of any video company, but it's worlds better from where Charter was in my area 2 years ago.
So, How long do you think it will take Charter to drop the 30meg plan altogether and FORCE people to pay more for something they don't need or can't afford, again?
My thoughts exactly.
They essentially forced all customers (that want to have internet, in many markets) to bend over and accept the 30/4 plan, and the price increases because that is the ONLY plan they really have now (not counting the nebulous 100 Mb tier LOL)
So it wouldn't surprise me if Charter forces an "upgrade" to say 50 or 60 and of course the prerequisite price increase as well. If they do in fact do this I bet they will have a flood of customers leaving unless they give out deals to existing customers like they have with the 30/4 plan they forced on customers last year.