Charter Simplifies Tiers: Just 30 and 100 Mbps

I wonder what a promo rate might be? I'm on a pretty good deal promo rate for the 15 meg service. 30/4 sounds decent but I wonder what people will get offered?

The promo rate is $30 for 12 months.

What's ironic is that the new 30 meg tier is the same price or cheaper than the old 15 meg tier yet people are complaining.

Google Fiber is going to make Charter cry! lmao

It is already available in KS and MO, so hopefully in a few years it will be available nationwide, and still offering its $300 for 7 years of 5mbps internet plan or $70 for 1gbps xD

$300 for 7 years is like $3.57 a month, $42.84 a year

How about 10Mbps at $30. That would be faster than I need or could use. Netflix can use up to 6, web sites don't send data fast enough to use 30. Who wants to pay $50 per month to check email and surf the web?

I also don't see this helping the digital divide when $50 per month is the minimum price, especially where charter has the monopoly.

I would think they'd offer a 5mbps for 30 plan. Something just fast enough to prevent DSL defections.

I pay $79.95 for 35 megs...capped at 250 gb...

Wow... Im paying $39.99 for 30 megs 250GB cap

Look at what Cablevision has done...they don't offer a tier below 15 Mbps. Higher speed tiers, higher (but not by much) prices are what keeps cable ahead of the pack when it comes to offering high-quality service. My guess is that Charter is fine with seeing folks wanting a cheap connection...without signing up for TV or phone service...going to DSL.

Also, y'all have it good with internet pricing. $50 per month buys you 6/1 on Comcast...and that doesn't count modem rental ($7 per month...or buy your own). 25/4 on Comcast is in the $70 range.

Of course Charter, and other Communication services providers are in business to make a good profit, we all understand that, however these companies must also understand that the economic conditions for many customers simply will not allow for them to spend 50 dollars a month for internet service or hundreds for cable TV, and phone as well. There are customers that will spend that, but there are also many more that cannot pay those prices and will be forced to find other service providers that can meet their budgets. It would be better for Charter to be receiving some money from those customers than NO money at all because they leave for other providers.

There should be a basic internet service tier that would be 5/1 mb for about 25$/ month. Not only would you keep a large base of budget conscious customers but it will also earn you good will with the communities you serve.

Mr Rutledge and his fellow executive management team should seriously reconsider only offering two tiers of speeds at this time. There are a large number of customers that still only require 5 mb or less and also desire the lower price that goes along with it.

Instead of preventing customers from owning their own modem entirely why not simply reduce the number of customer supported modem models to two or three, which Charter already use as their own supplied models, this seems to be an simple and effective compromise that will not alienate customers that wish to own their own unit.

Sorry, but many of these changes seem to be oriented towards a cash grab, and not at Charter's claimed goal of streamlining the service for better customer satisfaction. The side effect will be a large number of customers looking elsewhere for service in the future if this "scheme" continues as it is.

Mr. Rutledge and his new executive management team need to reconsider this new plan to prevent a wave of customer churn in the near future.

I've been with Charter since April 2011 and I have been VERY satisfied with their service, and it seems from my experience that the rank and file employees are doing a fine job. I hope the new executive management doesn't destroy the good will and larger customer base that previous efforts have gained in the recent past.

Here's a question: does Charter even want $25 customers? My bet is they'd rather have a single $50 customer than three $25 ones, due to overhead.

Response: "As the CEO and Many CEO's of other company's, we are not worried about YOU the customer, we are only worried about are Share Holders, and making sure we have the biggest Bonus we can get, and we will squeeze every dime that we can get!!!!!!"

Yes lowering prices is squeezing customers. more hyperbole.

Um no there SHOULDN'T be anything. There COULD be such a tier. And it WOULD be a nice thing for them to do.

Why would it make sense for a provider to cut their lower tier to 5/1 for $25? ... more and more people are admitting that they're cutting the video service down or out all together in favor of services like Netflix and Hulu. So what you're wanting is for them to drop their 5 meg internet to just $25? That would be a disservice to his position of CEO as it could severely harm the company financially if too many customers defected to a $25 tier. Further, if this tier was enacted and too many customers did make the move AND the company started to suffer financially, again, how much further backlash do you think the company would suffer to revert back to a higher dollar tier at a substantial rate hike? Customer backlash on that move would send the company into severe danger.. I'm sure these kinds of things don't cross the mind of the average non-business minded consumer. But, the CEO would be failing if he made such a stupid decision. $25 a month for a low end tier sounds good to the consumer, but for a company to survive that simply wouldn't cut muster.

Further, on your point of cutting the amount of customer owned modems to just a couple, I'm not sure if you realize just how much a nightmare THAT would be too. The amount of resources that would have to be in place to handle that sort of a switch, too, would be more than it's worth. In this case Charter should simply leave this one alone and NOT make the choice to cut customer modems from the lineup. This is one that I simply see as a way to increase revenue. But, to be fair, Charter never allowed them from the beginning either.. allowing customer owned modems is actually only several years to the recent. It's really hard to say if it is a cash grab or just a way to make it easier for them to manage their own network in their opinion. However, I can be pretty sure to guess that the number of customer owned modems is rather slim from experience as most people just take the company leased modem.

I also have to disagree with you on their efforts to streamline being a cash grab in general. One of the issues that the communications industry has struggled with is trying to offer WAY TOO MANY THINGS at one time.. they've got a million offers going on, ten million ways to buy video, internet and phone in various packages, etc. and in the end, all it creates is a lot of confusion between CSRs, techs, marketing departments, offices and locations, etc etc. In the end, when the flow of information constantly breaks down, it just gives the entire industry a very bad rep for being disorganized. There has to be some simplicity put back into the system if they can effectively manage the customer bases the size they have grown to.

So outside all the name calling, shill labels, etc, I see this as a positive move in the right direction for once. (except the customer owned modem.. still think it's too small of an issue for them to draw such a hard line int he sand.. but it's still relatively small in the greater scheme of it all) And the rental fee of the modem SHOULD be lowered to about $3 a month. $7 is too much.

All the Charter customers I know have been paying between $20 and $30 for standalone internet, for the past five years.

Maybe he's using the LAUSD math, same that the government does, but in my mind, a 60-150% increase is not insignificant.

$30 is the cheapest for standalone internet from Charter in the past. I just came off a two year contract $30 a month. (and I renewed June 26th for another two years).

Never seen standalone cable internet for $20 ANYWHERE!

Then you NEVER heard of Charter Internet Lite at $ 19.99/ mo

most importantly it came as a stand alone offer WITH NO CONTRACT!

I had it 3/1 mb for the past year and it was PERFECT for me and my budget, it gave me the service I "needed" at a price I COULD AFFORD

Actually in March they raised it to $25.

No what happened is:

It was $20 for 3mb. Then they gave a free speed increase around Dec 2011 to 10mb. Then in March 2012 raised price "due to increased costs". Now they lowered the speed back down to 3mb.

With the upcoming "no customer modems" and tier changes, looks like I might be switching my ISP.

Next time your contract is due, check in with the Charter Direct folks here at DSLR. They can make some pretty attractive deals. I don't dare to mess with mine right now!

I didn't know the CD guys could help you with this. I will give them a try next time. Thanks

Absolutely, they are the only means by which I contact Charter for anything. Completely efficient, direct, no B.S.(if you'd like to sign up for Charter phone service . . . )

Last time I renewed I posted "promotion expired" in the subject line and asked what was the closest they could come to matching the price for the exact services I currently have.

In a single sentence I was told the price(remained the same) for my current services. The second sentence informed me to contact them if I were interested in renewing at that price so they would have confirmation.

All customer service departments should take note.

They do exist, I've secured them for dozens of friends, relatives, clients, etc. Charter did $20, $24, and $27 rates over the past five years, so did Cox. We had Time Warner at $19.99 for a year, then $24.99, $27.99, and now $30.00. Comcast is currently offering $19.99 standalone in select markets. All of the above were 12-month rates.

These offers are easy to miss, if you aren't looking for them.
Most cable companies change their promotions monthly.

When you go from promo price to regular price you can't count that as a price increase. Promo by it's nature is supposed to be temporary. Using your logic a company can never offer a promo without being accused of price gouging once your promo ends. Maybe that's why they won't "supposedly" do promos anymore. So haters will quit accusing the of things that are not true.

I've been able to keep promo pricing going since fall 2009 for Plus tier. And I'll have that until next year. Now if after that if I have to pay the regular price of course that's not as good as getting internet for $30 but I certainly won't be accusing Charter of "fucking me over". Especially since I was able to keep a temporary price for 4X longer than I was supposed too.

Also until Charter actually tells me no they won't extend my promo price I'll defer judgment on all the "Charter is killing promos" rumors. Charter has killed 2 year contracts which is totally different. And why is anyone teed off about that? Their ETF fees on contracts were $150.

Since my market has not been upgraded yet, bastards!

50 & 100 mbit tiers would make more sense.. since that's where the rest of the (cable) industry's going.. assuming there isn't a further response to Verizon's 150 & 300mbt tiers.

still, there could be room for a lite 15/X tier assuming there is interest. this way, the tiers would be far apart enough to make sense to upgrade, or not.. Obviously, El Cheapo charter isn't done with docsis 2.0 modems yet..

Considering new customers have to get a Charter modem and it's docsis 3.0 your statement is a bullshit.

Does anyone know if the bandwidth caps will be the same as before for these two tiers?

I'm moving to a town where Charter is the only game in town. My biggest fear are the caps. I'd rather see those go up.

I wouldn't worry about it, tbh.

When I had the 15meg service with the 100GB cap, I would regularly hit 500-600GB/mo. No issues. It wasn't until I had 2 months above 700GB that Charter sent me notices.

I upgraded to the 30mbps plan with the 250GB cap, and haven't had any trouble since. Average usage hovers around 700GB/mo still.

As far as I know they are still 250 GB for 30 meg and 500 GB on 100 meg. That is IF they are enforced. Many people have claimed to have used 600 GB, 800 GB or more on the 30 meg tier and not hear a peep from Charter.

Is the $50 month a promotional rate?

If not then $50/mo for 30mb is about the lowest Ive seen for broadband at that speed. The new FIOS Quantum 50/20mb service will be around $80/month stand alone. Comcast and cablevision also are both more then $50 for even slower speeds.

To me this appears that Charter is taking/modifying a page from the Cell Phone Carries and instead of charging more for "data usage" Charter is calling this a "speed upgrade" to compensate for the larger use in data in most households.

Sure the lower speed tiers work for a lot of people and meets their budget, but no matter what tier you are at if you are using a lot of data your speed tier doesn't matter.

I know in my household, we have anywhere from up to 6 internet devices connected at one time from checking email, web browsing, facebook, online games, streaming music etc.. I haven't checked what my data usage is, but I bet it's up there.

Do I need 30 or a 100 Mbps probably not yet, but given my choices I'll stick with Charter.

You might not need 30 meg speed but you might need the increase in cap you also get. 15 meg was capped at 100 GB a month. 30 meg is 250 GB. Considering the new 30 meg price is $2 more than the old 15 meg price I think an extra 150 GB for $2 is quite a deal.

This is what I pay now. (134 after additional fees and taxes)

I called today and was told:

1. The rates I pay are current and correct.
2. I can switch over to the new pricing system and lower my bill by $6.
3. I have to pay a non-refundable $30 installation fee for a digital box to get on their new pricing system. They can not waive the fee because I am not intelligent enough to connect the wires myself. I must pay them to have a licensed professional do it for me.
4. They do not offer analog television service anymore.
5. They no longer offer any promotions.
6. They no longer offer any price guarantees.
7. There is nowhere I can go to see the pricing other than my bill.
8. They are more than happy to cancel my service if I don't like my rates.

This is why charter is the 3rd most hated company in the US.

I live in an economically poor area so I know a number of people who are on the Internet Lite plan and that is about all they can afford. If Charter drops that offering entirely, some of these folks will, by necessity, drop their Internet service. It would really do these CEO types (and the nation) some good to have to live on a tight budget for a period of time.

In addition to requiring you rent a modem (they're rolling the rental fee into the base price

Come on Karl you imply there was price increase.

Old 30 Mbps pricing $58 per month. Modem rental fee $7 total $65

New 30 Mbps pricing $50 modem included. Total $50

I wish I could get 30mbps for $50. We get about 12 now for about that price (maybe a few $ less), and when I move I'll be paying something like $60-$70 for 24-25mbps.

And a 4mbps upload? I'm really jealous now! We only have 2.

Charter 30 meg modem included $50

Comcast 30 meg $75, PLUS modem rental

U-verse 24 meg $58 per month

FiOS 15/5 $75 ( if you get phone and have a 2 year contract price drops to $65 )

Cox 18 meg $54

Time Warner 30 meg $70 plus $2.50 modem rental fee.

So yeah Charter is so fucking over their customers.

I don't care if it's 10, 30, 100, or 300Mbit/S
I don't care much if it's $30, $50, or S80 - as long as it delivers the speed I am being charged for, and it actually works.
I am on somehting like my 8th truck roll in two years.
The service sucks every time the weather is warm, even though my house has very good temperature and humidity control. IE, the problem is most likely on the pole outside, but they can't find it.

Pretty much doesn't matter what Charter does. They pretty much have everyone that uses them by the gonads and they know it.

Most people might have the option of DSL or satellite, but those 2 are almost no comparison.

I'm not a speed freak and won't pay much over $40 for internet, which is getting harder and harder to do, but the special going on for Frontier of $14.95 (plus modem rental) for 1Mbps download, just isn't worth it!

Charter has at least always worked perfectly for me, for 14 years, so I can love them and hate them at the same time!

Most people are too shortsighted to realise that having faster internet service is a necessity in today's world. They'd rather pay pennies, then be surprised that stuff takes too long to buffer, or that their pictures don't upload after clicking on the button.

I think it's the responsibility of the ISPs to deduce narrowband and all such problems out of existence.

If Charter can ensure that all of their customers have at least 30Mbps, that sounds great for internet innovation and cloud services. What's the upstream on these plans?

Still doesn't make up for their screwup with the decision to stop supporting customer modems. I hope they get bought out by Comcast

i got a flyer for the new deal in the mail. one thing that is a little funny when checking out the site on the plans the tv/net is the same price as the tv/net/phone. i might switch from fios to cut my bill for a year and then go back. it would be a downgrade but would save some money. $30 for 12 months for net would work for me.

I am a long time ADSL subscriber who has been considering the switch to cable. Charter is my only choice. Yesterday, I was reviewing and considering the promo mail they sent me with the $30 per month for 12 months offer. It is very enticing, as I currently spend more than that for 3 mbps DSL from the phone company.

However, seeing that the price per month will jump to $50 after that trial period, I don't think I can do it. Is that just for the internet service, or the "triple play"? The $30 trial seems to be for internet, tv, and phone service. I wonder what the total monthly bill for all the services would be after the 12 months? I am guessing a lot more than $50.

These prices may be reasonable for some, but I am retired and cannot be adding much higher monthly commitments.

Tim