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FNR32
join:2015-02-18
Birmingham, AL

FNR32

Member

[HSI] Getting Charter to run line

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streets with service, ours in red without
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green star is main trunk tap, blue dot is house on my street
Hi Everyone,

I've just purchased a home in Birmingham, Alabama in and area that I believed to be in Charter's service area. We are in a cluster of neighborhoods off of Hwy 41 if anyone is familiar. Across from Mt. Laurel and behind Greystone (both of which have Charter services. We have a tap to the main trunk line at the end of our street, however for some reason none of us on his specific street can get service. We've tried going to the local office and flagging down random Charter vehicles to get info on who, if anyone, we could reach out to but have come up short. I'm wondering if any one could offer any advice on how we may go about getting Charter to recognize us. I believe that many of us would even be willing to share the costs of running line if that's what it boils down to. Basically, we just want to know what needs to happen for us to be able to get the same services that everyone around us has access to. We've got 123 built and occupied homes in our neighborhood right now and the master plan is to have several hundred more. I'd think this would be great income that Charter would love to have. Any advice or input you all could offer would be invaluable!

I've attached a few photos from a letter that is going around the neighborhood hoping to garner support showing the streets around us that have charter in blue, and our streets in red that do not. Another photo shows the tap to the main trunk line with the Green Star and the blue dot represents a neighbors house who's very close to my own.

Thanks

tstolze
Premium Member
join:2003-08-08
O Fallon, MO

tstolze

Premium Member

It has been awhile since I have researched, but I believe Charter will wait until a certain percentage of the subdivision is built before offering service. I know in our area, the developers will have the plans in phases, it seemed they wanted each phase 80%-90% complete before they installed equipment.

HereToHelp
@charter.com

HereToHelp to FNR32

Anon

to FNR32
Is your neighborhood new? It would seem Charter would be require to service you area seeing all around you has service. Maybe if your area is new they have plans to expand to your area but have not done so yet.
FNR32
join:2015-02-18
Birmingham, AL

FNR32

Member

My house was built in 2012 along with the majority of the houses that are there now. There are some custom homes that are still being built, but most of the folks on that street have access to Charter services already. That's what's really irritating. Some houses on the street have Charter and some do not. It isn't the entire neighborhood that's without, just select houses.
aguen
Premium Member
join:2003-07-16
Grants Pass, OR

aguen to FNR32

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Is your development a part of an HOA? Who/what is your local municipal gov't.? I certainly hope it really isn't the city of Birmingham.
FNR32
join:2015-02-18
Birmingham, AL

FNR32

Member

Yes, my development is governed by Eddleman HOA. We are in Shelby County, but fall under Birmingham. We aren't quite far enough down hwy280 to be Chelsea.
aguen
Premium Member
join:2003-07-16
Grants Pass, OR

1 recommendation

aguen to FNR32

Premium Member

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Ok, your HOA board will "probably" have to open the dialog with Charter, as they probably will have to grant access for Charter in order to dig. Charter may also want to know approx. how many potential customers there will be in order to justify the expense.

Good Luck

nunya
LXI 483
MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
·Charter

nunya to FNR32

MVM

to FNR32
Usually in these situation I offer the "you are SOL" advice.
In your case, however, it looks like there are more than enough homes to make it worth Charter's while to build out. I can't help but feel like there was some sort of clerical mistake made by Charter.
Perhaps there is a beef with the developer?
There's got to be an explanation as to why they would pass on this subdivision.
FNR32
join:2015-02-18
Birmingham, AL

FNR32

Member

I think it's worth their while as well. I'm not sure there is an issue with the builder or lack of HOA dialogue because several of the houses that do have service are under our same HOA and were built by the same builder. Some of them are even newer than ours which counters the idea they're waiting for the place to be built out anymore before running line. It's like they're just picking and choosing which houses get served and which houses do not.

bdnhsv
join:2012-01-20
Huntsville, AL

bdnhsv

Member

I'd recommend printing out your pictures and taking them to the local Charter office (2100 Columbiana Rd). Ask for the General Manager or other highest ranking employee there, show them your pictures and ask for their assistance.
wdm
join:2014-06-09
Ashland, MO

wdm to tstolze

Member

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I am in the same boat as the OP and in the process of convincing charter expand to our 5 year old neighborhood. It's odd you say 80-90% complete because that is currently about what my subdivision is at. Yet, the local charter tech said our initial plan was denied due to cost. Apparently, they like to lay down lines during the development phase when it's cheap to split the cost with local power utilities and telco. Now that are area is complete, they apparently have to use a special boring rig to get underneath driveways and sidewalks. That makes getting to us cost prohibitive.

I have included a screenshot similar to what the OP has. The google maps shot is two years old, so I highlighted areas in yellow that are the last unsold lots. We will have 109 lots in total when those last 13 or so are complete. The orange glob to the west is the charter node. The maroon/red is the 200yards or so they are from our neighborhood entrance. So it seems like I am in a near identical situation as OP.

Does the decision to build out just come down to how each office manages their area?

Either way my advice for now is start a petition with signatures and go door to door. The Charter construction tech suggested I do so as verify interest will help justify cost. So, that's what I have been doing and not only do I get signatures from almost everyone, but I also get to meet more of my neighbors! Oh, if you do go to the local office, ask for the construction tech. He/she will know more about build out than other staff.

I will update this post when/if I get more info from Charter and once I turn in the petition.

DLow
join:2013-11-16
Waxahachie, TX

DLow

Member

Good luck guys i was in the same boat the closest tap is in the neighboors across the streets back yard, The quoted 3500 to build out but said i have to pay it.
FNR32
join:2015-02-18
Birmingham, AL

FNR32

Member

As moronic as it sounds, I'd heavily consider paying that if that's what it took. I've heard back from the construction supervisor for my area that they have all of the info for my subdivision and have presented it to higher management for approval. They hope to hear something back in the next few weeks and hope to have the build out completed some time this year.

DLow
join:2013-11-16
Waxahachie, TX

DLow

Member

Yeah im kind of thinking about it, I mean i pay $120/month for my WISP and $160/Satellite
Only part that frustrates me is i would be making other houses serviceable that are occupied by very old couples that prob would not want to hop on the bandwagon and pitch into getting it built
mountainview
join:2011-09-07
united state

mountainview to DLow

Member

to DLow
Do you own the fiber if you pay for that? If not why not use a WISP
watts3000
join:2002-01-21

1 edit

watts3000 to FNR32

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Internet access is so important now I will never understand how people go buy houses before checking this stuff out. I bought a house about 5 years ago I actually crossed houses off that did not have high speed access. BTW in my subdivision for some reason Charter built out half of the area. The other half has no internet access they all use wisp. They put together a petition now 5 years later still nothing that part of the subdivision still has no access.
FNR32
join:2015-02-18
Birmingham, AL

FNR32

Member

Ha. I actually did check houses off the list. I called the ISP and got incorrect info. All things considered, I still would have bought the house, but I do feel a little duped. As far as I understand it the only way that charter knew my house wasn't available for service was by sending a tech out to actually measure the distance from the node which I wasn't able to do until I technically owned the house %u2013 I do wish that there was a way to know for sure without having to jump through all these hoops prior to closing. However in my instance it wouldn't have influenced my purchase decision.
watts3000
join:2002-01-21

watts3000

Member

I don't understand why you had to own the house. First off how does Charter even know if you own the house or not you still should have had them come out. I have heard people in your situation several times normally it does not end well good luck anyway.

neofate
Caveat Depascor
Premium Member
join:2003-11-11
Birmingham, AL

neofate to FNR32

Premium Member

to FNR32
I live very close to you.. In Dunnavant place at Highland lakes.. literally nearly in rock throwing distance

When they built this neighborhood in 2005/2006/2007 Charter had come out and put a 4 way tap between every 2 houses.. (A bit overkill.. but definitely well engineered). Other than Eddleman using very poor Coax through the house (first home built in the neighborhood).. and me having to rewire the entire thing.. The service has been phenomenal here. No complaints whatsoever.

I would definitely work on contacting edleman.. and getting to the person who runs the show.. They work with the telco and charter all the time and can get this done -- although if the building is done then it's definitely not something they care about (ie: If they've made their money).

I would suspect that won't go very far.

So.. secondly I would go door to door in the neighborhood and create some form of letter.. brief.. but long enough to explain the situation, how close the service is all around,.. and that everyone who signs agrees with said form -- Which will present that these people wish to purchase charter services.

With that .. you go through the HOA with hopefully 10-20 people or more who have agreed they want to buy Charter services, but are unable to because Charter has failed to run their Hardlines, Amplifiers, and ultimately the underground driven Pedestals (green things) in "our" neighborhood. That this is in the best interest of both the people of (insert neighborhood name, Eddleman properties, the XYZ Home owners association, and financially beneficially to Charter Communications).. You get the gist.

Lastly.. Charter will always build out if you pay for it.. it's not cheap. If enough people REALLY want Charter cable (which around here it's hands down the only internet with any real high speed.. yes U-Verse is here, but it's not with the speeds of Charter)...

I would advise you to contact Charter locally .. you may have the best success going through the business department -- to get a quote on building out to your neighborhood -- Then discussing with the people who are definitely going to buy Charter Internet.. (and whatever else service wise) -- to split the build out fee evenly among you guys.

Say it's 10 people.. and the quote is 3 grand.. well.. that's $300 a person.. more people, less money for obvious reason.

If the money is too high for the people interested.. you may take on a higher percentage of the fee to lower their cost and so on.

All of that said, going through proper channels Charter should agree to build out to your neighborhood given this is a relatively 'high end' area with nice homes.. and it's all serviced by charter -- It wouldn't be difficult to build into that area as this node is far from saturated.

Expect delays,.. and if there is an agreement expect it to take a while before construction begins.

These services should always be built during the home building process -- Often the Telco gets run, and for budget reasons etc.. the Cable/Hybrid Fiber Coax systems do not get accomplished.

I wish you much luck, and if I can help in any way just let me know.

mixdup
join:2003-06-28
Alpharetta, GA

mixdup to FNR32

Member

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said by FNR32:

Yes, my development is governed by Eddleman HOA. We are in Shelby County, but fall under Birmingham. We aren't quite far enough down hwy280 to be Chelsea.

That is unincorporated Shelby County. Your address is "Birmingham" but you're not in the city limits, so the City of Birmingham will be no help. FWIW if you were in Birmingham proper, Bright House would most likely be your cable company, not Charter.

You can try going to the county, but I don't know what their franchise agreement is like. I know they do not have a universal service requirement because there are large parts of Shelby County without cable service at all.

Do you know where the main Charter office is on Columbiana Road in Vestavia? You might go by there and ask to speak to a manager. That's where all the technicians for the south part of town are dispatched from, maybe you can find a construction manager there.

Edit: Are you sure you're not in Hoover? Might want to make sure you don't fall within Hoover city limits (which is possible even with a "Birmingham" address), but surely you'd know if you were in Hoover instead. If you happen to be in Hoover, might want to contact them to see what their franchise agreement with Charter says regarding service availability.
watts3000
join:2002-01-21

watts3000 to FNR32

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FNR32 did you ever have any luck with getting the line?

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

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Here is my current situation getting them to run the line to a house we are considering. 400 feet and $6700...
»[HSI] 377 feet from the line, even side of the road.
chmod755
join:2011-09-01
Hazelwood, MO
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wdm in Ashland, MO --
Boone County, MO seems to have a lot of buildout issues. The Charter system in the county is all run out of the office on the north side of Columbia, so the outer Columbia areas, Ashland and Rocheport (and maybe Moberly too - I'm not sure) are all from that office.

Many new subdivisions in Boone County are without any form of cable service. It doesn't help that here in Columbia we have some newer neighborhoods on Charter, some on Mediacom, some on both, and some on neither. I know in Ashland it's all Charter cable-wise, unlike here where it varies from one 'suburban' neighborhood to another, but I still think the local Charter office has a problem with timeliness on infrastructure improvements.

The install contractors themselves are great -- I got service in less than 24 hours from when I signed up -- but my neighborhood also has many Charter boxes that are damaged, completely open, wires and fiber conduits exposed, etc. and have been that way for over a year with no repairs. It's a Charter-only neighborhood too, so no one else to blame. I think they're just really slow when it comes to building and maintaining the infrastructure here.

The frustrating thing is they've reported to the US Government (National Broadband Maps) that they have service on many of the streets in these newer neighborhoods (Old Hawthorne east of Columbia, homes in the Mill Creek area in south Columbia, your subdivision east of Ashland, etc.) but while the cable may be run, they aren't selling service.
(Attachments:
Ashland, MO map -- showing service quite a ways east of 63 in the Ashland area
East Columbia
South Columbia)

WDM, If you do find a good contact for someone supervising the Boone County system, PM me their info. I have no complaints about the Charter service at my house -- it works great -- but I'd still like to be able to reach someone about fixing and finishing up some work in my neighborhood as I'm concerned the open/broken boxes can or will lead to service and stability issues in the future.
FNR32
join:2015-02-18
Birmingham, AL

FNR32 to watts3000

Member

to watts3000
I did get a bit of luck. I ended up being put into contact with the head of construction in my area for Charter. I suppled him with all of the info I posted here. In addition, we have a petition going around the neighborhood that people have signed stating they would be highly interested in charter services should they come available. I'd been checking in with the Construction Manager weekly and was told last week that he's received approval to build out our neighborhood and is awaiting final instruction, but he is being told that construction should begin sometime in June.
wdm
join:2014-06-09
Ashland, MO

wdm to chmod755

Member

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I did go in and submit my petition the last week of March. We have 79 homes completed and 69 yes responses, so hopefully that is enough. They are putting the remaining homes this summer for a total of 110ish. I passed all this info along to the charter office in CoMO.

When I went in, I just went to the front desk and asked for a construction tech. He was in a hurry but I showed him the info I gathered. He told me (which matches your comments) that they are swamped right now and it would take awhile to even look at the feasibility of building out our area... I'ts been two months and i have yet to check back because he seemed so busy at the time, heh. It's my understanding this lone office covers columbia, moberly, ashland, fulton, auxvasse, and kingdom city. I would maybe take a few pictures of the hardware in question and then just go in and show them. They are really friendly people.

My wife are actually considering moving so we've been driving around town looking at lots while keeping and eye our for charter PEDs and checking addresses. I can verify that the map you posted is indeed 50-60% inaccurate (at least in this area).

@FNR32 Glad to hear you will be getting service. Knowing that someone was recently able to succeed in getting charter to build out their area keeps my hope alive!
chmod755
join:2011-09-01
Hazelwood, MO
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chmod755

Member

@WDM Thanks for the info. I didn't know it was possible to go in and ask to speak to a tech. I live just blocks from the CoMO office so will plan to get pictures and go in when time permits.

I've driven around Ashland a few times too and noticed where the cable lines and pedestals are -- no plans to move anytime soon but just want to know what's out there when the time does come -- and working from home having good HSI is important so wouldn't want to get stuck in a DSL-only area (and preferably not a Mediacom-only neighborhood either). But in Ashland I'm really only familiar with the west side of 63 which seems to be pretty well served. I don't know if this is the norm for Charter but it seems like the Columbia office is overextended with the service area they have to cover. They really need another office to take some of the load off this one, like something in the Fulton area.

Best of luck with the petition though. That at least sounds promising with that many 'yes' responses.
watts3000
join:2002-01-21

watts3000 to FNR32

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FNR32 that's great news I hope everything works out. Also 6700 is a lot of money to pay someone to run a line than they will expect for you to pay them a monthly fee. It would have to be something built in where I could recoup my 6700.00 dollars.

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

ptrowski

Premium Member

said by watts3000:

FNR32 that's great news I hope everything works out. Also 6700 is a lot of money to pay someone to run a line than they will expect for you to pay them a monthly fee. It would have to be something built in where I could recoup my 6700.00 dollars.

It's either that or be stuck with 6 mb DSL....
watts3000
join:2002-01-21

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Well I would just be stuck I'm not paying someone 6700.00 just to have internet. Its not that serious to me now if we work out a deal where I do not have to pay a bill for x number of years than I'm in. Now if you work from home or own your own business where internet is critical to your bottom line than I would pay.

ptrowski
Got Helix?
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join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

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Checking back, did Charter start the build out?