Charter Testing Mobile Product with 5K Employees

In anticipating of its commercial launch of a mobile product, Charter Communications recently kicked off a field trial with 5,000 employees, with plans to have them go through the end-to-end sales activation and service process in May, Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said Friday on the company’s Q1 call.

Charter is also in the process of building out its sales channels and service capabilities for the coming product, a project that includes modifying several hundred of its retail stores and preparing its call centers.

Rutledge said Charter is likewise on track to launch the offering, which will be called Spectrum Mobile and lean on an MVNO deal with Verizon Wireless, around mid-2018.

Charter has not announced specifics on how it will price and sell its new mobile product, which will also take advantage of Charter’s WiFi infrastructure.

“Ultimately, the goal is to use our mobile service to attract and retain cable bundled, multi-product customers,” he said.

Rutledge also said the 50/50 joint venture with Comcast focused on the mobile back office platform and operations will help Charter accelerate its ability to scale its mobile offering.

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Spectrum unleashes Gig to speed internet

That’s the word from Wes Shirley of Charter Communications with this week’s launch of Spectrum Internet Gig in Columbus, Lincoln and several other communities aiming to bring much faster internet speeds to areas it serves.

Shirley said Spectrum, senior communications manager for Charter, has been fully committed to bringing faster internet speeds to the communities it serves with no modem fees or data caps since acquiring Time Warner Cable a couple of years ago.

“Columbus are customers have experienced a steady stream of investments and speed upgrades,” said Shirley, adding Gig’s introduction showcases that commitment.

Spectrum Internet Gig features the deployment of DOCSIS 3.1 internet services delivering a 1 Gbps connection to the customer’s home. The technology allows the Spectrum to deliver internet speeds nearly 10 times faster than the provider’s flagship 100 Mbps (megabits per second).

“Spectrum’s state-of-the-art, fiber-rich network allows us to deploy dramatically faster broadband speeds, including gigabit connections, broadly and rapidly,” said Tom Rutledge, chief executive officer of Charter Communications.

“As consumer demands for bandwidth and capacity grow, our world-class network is best-positioned to meet these demands, today and into the future,” he said in a company press release.

Spectrum’s initial launch this week covers areas previously served by Time Warner, including Lincoln, Columbus, Fremont and other communities. The provider’s entire Nebraska area will see Gig later this year (along with virtually all of Spectrum’s 41-state service area).

Up until now, though, if a customer wanted gigabit internet speeds in their home, they needed a fiber optic connection, which hasn’t been readily available to most households.

While the availability of fiber is improving, the DOCSIS 3.1 technology can actually use the existing cable lines already installed to a customer’s home to provide blazing fast gigabit internet that rivals the speed of even fiber.

DOCSIS stands for Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification. It’s the international standard used to transfer data over cable TV systems, which makes it possible for any cable modem to work with any cable TV system.

Shirley said Spectrum Internet Gig is priced at $104.99 per month for new customers.

Charter’s online service improvements enable customers to enjoy an unlimited broadband experience and the ability to simultaneously stream high-definition videos, download music and more without sacrificing internet performance, Shirley said while describing the company’s business investment strategy last year.

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Spectrum bringing faster internet speed to Rochester: What you should know

Spectrum released a gigabit-per-second service option Wednesday for 23 million people across New York state, offering speeds 10 times as fast as the provider's current basic option.

What is a gigabit?

A gigabit is equivalent to 1,000 megabits per second. That measurement denotes the bandwidth, or volume of data, able to be transferred within a second's time. The company will also deploy DOCSIS 3.1 technology with the gigabit offering, which will allow the increased speed to travel along the existing fiber and coaxial cable network.

Customers looking to transition to gigabit speed need to have a professional installation, but won't need to have their yard torn up to run new cable infrastructure, said Charter Communications and Spectrum spokesperson Lara Pritchard. 

Consumers can determine their speeds using an independent online service like SpeedTest.net.

Pricing 

Spectrum will offer gigabit service (with a top download speed of 940 Mbps) for $104.99 for new customers, $114.99 for Spectrum TV customers and $124.99 a month for non-Spectrum TV customers, plus a one-time $199 installation fee, throughout western New York, with the exception of Buffalo. Buffalo is scheduled to complete its transition to the technology in June, said  Pritchard.

Spectrum is also offering 400 Mbps for $69.99 a month for new customers, $79.99 for Spectrum TV customers, and $89.99 for non-Spectrum TV customers. The basic 100 Mbps plan is $64.99 and $54.99 with Spectrum TV.

Rollout

Gigabit service will be available throughout virtually all of Spectrum’s 41-state service area by the end of 2018, according to a news release. The service will allow faster streaming of online video, game and music downloads over multiple devices.

The speed options offered put the Rochester area ahead of a chunk of the nation. The Federal Communications Commission’s most recent statistics show that as of the middle of 2016, 21 percent of census blocks didn’t have a single provider offering 25-Mbps or faster downloads.

Charter Communications, which offers its services under the name Spectrum, has been in the community for about two years, and this offering delivers on what the company said it was going to do, which was to to invest in the best technology for the area, said Pritchard.

"I think you're seeing delivery on that in a significant fashion, and in a expedited fashion, compared to what Rochester has had over the past several years," she said. 

She pointed to the string of announcements from Spectrum over the past six months, including the switch this year to all-digital channel formats, which freed up more broadband space to increase internet speeds, and a boost in basic internet speeds from 60 to 100 Mbps for existing residential and business customers back in December. 

Greenlight

The new speeds close the gap between internet offerings of Spectrum and local fiber optic network Greenlight Networks. Tom Golisano’s Grand Oaks LLC recently moved to acquire Greenlight in an expedited manner, based on a petition filed with the New York Public Service Commission. Greenlight offers gigabit service for $100 a month.

Greenlight offers 100 Mbps service for $50 a month. The company, which has provided service to pockets of the area since 2012, is available in Irondequoit, Webster, Brighton, East Rochester, Fairport, Pittsford and Henrietta.

Should Golisano’s acquisition be approved, an expansion will likely occur first in the west side suburbs and nearby cities like Syracuse and Buffalo.

Greenlight, while very well-reviewed by most local customers, has been slow to expand across the area. Golisano’s backing would be a shot in the arm to push the network into more widespread competition with Spectrum.

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