Charter Communications is traditionally considered the black sheep of this industry, thanks to a massive debt load and consistently poor customer service. Still, their latest quarterly earnings hint at a slight financial improvement at the company. Their quarterly net loss shrank to $358 million from $381 million a year ago, with sales jumping 10.5% to $1.56 billion (85,700 new broadband customers on the quarter). I'm thinking that any company that can convince someone to pay $70,000 for potentially just a few years of broadband service, should have the skill set to correct their financial misfortunes -- but bankruptcy or company sale rumors usually pop up twice a year or so.