Charter Losing Cable Subscribers Adds 95k VoIP customers, 19k HSI customers Charter issued their second quarter earnings this morning which show that unlike Comcast, Charter is losing basic cable TV customers, but didn't compensate this quarter with the addition of digital cable subscribers. The company says they lost 44,800 basic video customers, while only adding 33,900 digital video customers. The cable operator did add 95,000 VoIP customers and 19,300 broadband customers. The company posted a quarterly loss of $276 million, compared to a year-ago loss of $360 million.
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 | | My Thoughts For one people are cutting down monthly cost. And if Verizon is in the area then they could be losing folks to them. Until Verizon jumps on the band wagon of metered billing. Which we all know it's only a matter of time until Hollywood forces Verizon to do so. | |
|  | CorydonCultivant son jardinPremium
join:2008-02-18
Denver, CO | Re: My Thoughts I believe that Charter is mostly in AT&T's territory, not Verizon's. I suppose U-Verse could be providing some competition in some areas though.
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"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too." | |
| | |  en102Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Re: My Thoughts Since the customer loss overall isn't very high (44,000 to 39,000), it may just be that people have cut service altogether (TV is a luxury). In many areas, OTA digital is better than basic TV, and its free.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
| | | | | said by Corydon:I believe that Charter is mostly in AT&T's territory, not Verizon's. I suppose U-Verse could be providing some competition in some areas though. I still believe in the Chatsworth Lake area (at the Los Angeles/Ventura county border) and other areas, Charter still has not upgraded their system to fiber, thus no high-speed internet or extended cable TV channel line-ups. This is in the same area where AT&T has launched Uverse. It's no wonder they're losing customers. | |
| | | | shoan
join:2006-02-27
Benton, AR | Re: My Thoughts its the same thing in our area they do not offer any services other than basic cable so why should we give them business when we can get so much more from sat. for less cost. | |
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| | | Why would Verizon ever NEED to go to metered billing? Let's be honest, their FIOS network is light years ahead of anything that cable can offer. Thus, if verizon ever DID try to do a 'bill by the byte', it would be a cash grab, and have NOTHING to do with their network. I'm lucky, I have 2 choices here (FIOS and Comcrap), and every person I meet I have shifted over to FIOS. FASTER speeds (though, the cheap 5/2 plan is only $34.99/month, I recommend at least the 15/2 ($45.99/month), or the 30/15 ($65.99/month, my plan). It's STILL cheaper than comcast, and you can use as much as you want, they don't care.
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The happiest countries are the most secular. The struggle AGAINST corporations is the struggle FOR humanity! | |
| | | | | Re: My Thoughts Metered billing is never anything but a cash grab. There's no bandwidth shortage anywhere in any cable ISP's network except at the last mile, so instead of upgrading (which would make customers happy), they decide to discourage internet use altogether (which makes nobody happy, as customers are then lost). | |
| | | |  Jerm
join:2000-04-10
Richland, WA
kudos:2 | Re: My Thoughts Not a cash grab... the real reason is much more sinister.
As much as an attempt to prevent competition to their own video service. Cable co's are terrified of becomming a dumb pipe provider.
What's the real point of caps? To prevent VIDEO from being streamed over their network! | |
| | | | | EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA | Re: My Thoughts Arguably Verizon should have the same issue, since they've moved into the TV business.
On the other hand, FiOS TV seems half-hearted as compared to FiOS internet, basically a one-way cable system taped onto a FTTH backbone... and Verizon's talking about adding third-party video providers like YouTube onto their set-top boxes, so they seem to be moving in a different direction... but I'm probably being overly hopeful- let's face it, no corporation is perfect, and certainly not VZ. | |
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| | Verizon Yep,
Verizon IS in my area, but last time I did a trial of them, which was about a year ago, I couldn't get above 1.5Mb download on a 3Mb plan.
Have been considering ALL the trade offs ever since!
Should add that Charter has been VERY reliable for me, for 9 years. 
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The Firefox alternative.
»www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/ | |
| | | | Re: Verizon said by cork1958:Yep, Verizon IS in my area, but last time I did a trial of them, which was about a year ago, I couldn't get above 1.5Mb download on a 3Mb plan. Have been considering ALL the trade offs ever since! Should add that Charter has been VERY reliable for me, for 9 years. We're not talking about Verizon DSL, bud. We're talking about Verizon Fios. You know, fiber internet. I've had all three ( Verizon DSL, Verizon Fios, Charter Cable in 3 different areas). Fios blows everything else away! Charter in 1 area was good, but poor in the other two areas. Verizon DSL was just ok speed wise, but always on and never an outage. | |
| | mobbo
join:2005-04-13
Denton, TX | Yes, the Michigan Charter franchise is the only franchise that is decent. I've rarely heard of complaints from that region... but here in Texas, Charter is... geez I can't even think of a word to describe how awful they are. | |
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | customers dont just disappear So where are all the basic video customers going? Free OTA? Satellite? Telco TV (yeah right)? Or economy so bad ppl are turning off the tube? | |
| | | | Re: customers dont just disappear said by patcat88:So where are all the basic video customers going? Free OTA? Satellite? Telco TV (yeah right)? Or economy so bad ppl are turning off the tube? All of the above probably. If you have basic cable subscirbers who now are facing double digit inflation in food and fuel...that extra money has to come from somewhere. If you paying $60 a month for cable and fuel/food is now $15 a week more than it was last month...guess what gets cut. | |
| |  SLDPremium
join:2002-04-17
San Francisco, CA | Browsing the internet? Reading this site? | |
| | | | For our household, we got fed up with Charter and quit the service.
We checked out UVerse, but the price gives us pause. Instead, we pick local stations via small inside antennas, and use the internet for other offerings (one tv has a Roku Netflix box, another has a computer and an AppleTV). | |
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 MattAll noise, no signal.Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
kudos:12 |  Basic Video?
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|  WiseOldNerdDe gustibus non est disputandumPremium
join:2001-11-25
Phoenix, AZ
 ·Charter
·Cox HSI
| Marginal Video-Adequate HSI Have only been Charter customer for about 9 months, and I continue to have some mixed feelings. Initially the video sucked big time when feeding Portland stations. Earlier this year, they did some improvements and now the Portland stations are clear and viewable. We continue to use only expanded basic because the HD offerings remain pathetic. The biggest complaint is that the HD doesn't include the Portland stations so we can not get the networks in HD.
Added HSI about 2 months ago after determining that Qwest would not upgrade wire to provide better DSL service, at least in my lifetime. I have had zero outages and only a couple of slow downs and that only down to 5MBS from my usual 10.
I considered satellite, but both flavors require a two year commitment if you want HD and I will not do that.
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My perception is REALITY | |
| Reviews:
 ·AT&T Southeast
| No Suprise They were losing cable subs when i worked there like 3 years ago. We even had a meeting when they went to the stupid Service2Sales call crap that showed that they expected phone to save the compnay and that cable TV was a sinking ship. Its been that way for years around there. They keep hoping internet and phone will keep the company going. | |
| MTUPremium
join:2005-02-15
San Luis Obispo, CA Reviews:
·AT&T Yahoo
| Charter decline Left Charter TV/Broadband (only game in town) years ago, as did neighbors, after they kept upping rates. Had called Charter to 'negotiate' and got nowhere. Luckily, a month or so later AT&T made DSL available to area, and made the jump. No regrets for broadband service until recent non-warrant data/phone taps by ATT.
One local TV channel by antenna until getting basic Dish. Very happy with dish.
A week after making switch to DSL, Charter rep called to ask why I'd dropped them. I said price rise and no flexibility. They offered to keep me at the 'old' price. No joy. Since have been bombarded by Charter fliers and offers, all of which are short-time pricing. | |
|  scoobyPremium
join:2001-05-01
Schaumburg, IL
kudos:1 | Another bad investment by Paul Allen P.A. has made some bad investments but Charter has been quite the never ending money pit. You have to wonder how much pain he is willing to endure. When is it time to cut the loses? | |
|  DHRacerFire Survivor
join:2000-10-10
Lake Arrowhead, CA
·Charter
·Verizon Online DSL
| That's cause Charter sucks! They have the worst TV service I've ever seen. Period. I had better SD video quality 20 years ago. Their HD is a joke (both quantity and quality), the receiver boxes suck @ss and I'd switch to DTV if I actually had a decent view of the southern sky (as it is, I don't).
The only problem is, ther HSI is the only viable game in town, so I can't drop them entirely, and their HSI and phone are actually top-notch services (at least in my area).
They should just stop being a Cable TV company and just do HSI and phone. They clearly don't care about doing the TV side of their business. Plus they are so ridiculously expensive for what you get.
So I can see why they add HSI and VOIP customers and bleed TV subscribers.
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| | mobbo
join:2005-04-13
Denton, TX | Re: That's cause Charter sucks! I could not agree with you more. This article put a smile on my face. I HATE CHARTER SOOOO MUCH! Terrible picture quality, horrid equipment, very very little HD selection, and the WORST customer service imaginable.
It's simple WHY they suck so hard: They just don't give a damn about anything. They aren't upgrading anything, they aren't adding any channels, they don't communicate with their customers at all, the pricing after your promotion is over is ridiculous... they are just an awful crappy company; and awful crappy companies need to go away and die.
The slow death of Charter is the work of COMPETITION... and it's beautiful. FiOS is a superior product, it costs less, has more HD channels (even more soon), faster internet, better customer service (that's sad), and better equipment. The reason Charter is hemorrhaging customers is because they used to be the only provider in most of these areas, including Denton, TX. Now that they have a competitor that is clearly running circles around them they will continue to die... unless they somehow magically fix all of the above (ain't gonna happen). | |
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| | fios or cable When faced with a 2 year commitment I had to pass on the fios. I have 6 sets in the house and I dont want a converter on each one due to the cost. At least with my basic cable it's cheap and I get the hd stations for free(local), also I can have 10 sets it it will not matter. As far as high speed goes I dont do a lot of downloads and 10/1 is fine for 99% of us. | |
| | Reviews:
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: fios or cable I too have kicked them to the curb. partially because of their service, a lot because of the price and even more I got tired of paying that high price to watch garbage programming along with commercials. Getting plenty to watch off rabbit ears on HD. I can only watch one channel at a time anyway. | |
| | mobbo
join:2005-04-13
Denton, TX | I feel ya. I love my FiOS but sometimes my 20/20 connection is a bit overkill. I may drop down to 20/5 here in a little while. Roadrunner is pretty good (I had it as a kid in Houston) but I would still pick FiOS in my situation. I have 3 TV's and VZ gave me a free converter for my analog TV. When they start adding channels I actually watch to the HD lineup, like FX, USA, TBS, Sci-Fi, AMC, and such, the HD converter boxes will be beneficial. | |
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| | Bound to happen I'm still a basic subscriber, but dropped their HSI service. Have given thoughts to dropping them altogether for DirectTV in the past. Right now I'm waiting for Verizon to finish deploying FIOS in my area so I can jump to that and leave their crappy aDSL service which I can only get 1.5Mbps downstream maximum. As soon as Verizon gives me my FIOS fix  Charter can add me to their statistics of people that dropped them entirely! | |
| | | Charter Losing Cable Subscribers Lots in this Charter Market have gone Satt. As much as they try Charter just can't get Cable Picture right. I got rid of it and can't belive how much better my Direct TV picture is. | |
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