Charter Communications merger with Time Warner & Brighthouse

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Sharks

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Charter Communications merger with Time Warner & Brighthouse

#1

Post by Sharks » Tue Apr 26, 2016 5:12 am

I'm interested to see what you guys think of this deal and/or the limits that the FCC is imposing to allow the deal to go through?

http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/25/media/c ... index.html

Sammy2

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#2

Post by Sammy2 » Tue Apr 26, 2016 4:45 pm

I have Charter and find them to actually be quite good. Their pricing is consistent and hasn't changed in about three years. They have no contract service which I like. The pricing tiers are pretty straight forward. CableCARDs are $2 a month which is reasonable. Their support is pretty good although ocassionaly there's a CS agent that doesn't understand CableCARDs. Their internet if fast and reliable although they could use a bit more pair bonding on the upstream side to get beyond 4 or 5 gbps. TWC advertises faster speeds so if Charter brings that to my market it's a win for me. They have never imposed usage caps and have allowed costumer owned modems for years except for about 18 months in the recent past but even then if you had a DOCIS 3 on file already you didn't have to change it out. Mine failed in this time period and now I have one of theirs rent free.

STB fees are excessive but on par with the industry I guess as the industry is excessive on these things. The boxes are $7 a month each BUT DVR fees are $20 a month which I can't understand because it is the same box just with a DVR_yes flag or something in the configuration from the head end. They also play the WiFi game, renting 2.4gHz WiFi routers for $7 a month to those who don't know how easy and cheap it is to actually have your own router but unlike att Uverse they let you have your own router. For those of use here none of this matters as we use CableCARD tuners and our own routers.

The fact that the part on no usage caps is in the agreement concerns me as in that implicitly states that Charter is considering a change here or maybe the simply just agreed to do something they were already doing and didn't plan to change to give the FCC some "face".

All in all, I've been with Charter for years and like them, probably more so than most people consider their ISP and/or CATV provider

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TheOsburnFamil

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#3

Post by TheOsburnFamil » Tue Apr 26, 2016 10:59 pm

^I'm right there too. I echo pretty much everything above.

I've been a Charter customer for their TV & ISP in south-west Michigan for the past 7 years. I can count on one hand the number of times my internet or tv has gone out. I've never had a single bad experience with charter support. Even though I have two Ceton cablecard tuners, I have on occasion gone down to the local office to "swap" the cablebox given and it's always been an easy experience. While they no-longer allow new customers to bring your own modem, they now provide you a cablemodem lease-free. I would like higher internet speeds (the max I can get is 60 down & 4 up), I am all-in-all a satisfied Charter customer.

I think the deal is a big positive even for us "legacy" charter customers. I can't wait for the mergers to complete so they can start rolling out their long-awaited cloud dvr service.
Matt O. ...tivo what? ...dish dvr--uh... huh? ...cable dvr fees--you're kidding, right?

Sammy2

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#4

Post by Sammy2 » Tue Apr 26, 2016 11:16 pm

I'm not sure but how is the merger holding that up? As a devoted WMC CableCARD user, I'm not sure how the cloud DVR will effect me and I prefer having control over the content I record to the highest extent possible. Other than CCI copy protected content, all my recordings are portable using Emby. Most CCI copy protected content is already available via the Spectrum App or individual apps such as Showtime Anytime or HBO Go. With the lessening of the the CableCARD regulations over time I see this as a possible cost increase to me and am a bit concerned about it. They can say it is "included" with service and therefore charge more money for service for something that I'm not so sure I'll use.

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