is an American company providing
Cable Television ,
High-speed Internet , and telephone services to more than 5.7 million customers in 29 states. It is the third-largest publicly traded cable operator in the U.S., behind
Comcast and
Time Warner Cable .
NCTA Top 25 MSO's
Charter Communications incorporated in Delaware in 1993. Through a series of acquisitions as well as internally financed growth, the company served one million customers in 1998, 3.9 million in 1999, and 6.8 million in 2002.
The company was involved in an
Accounting fraud in 2000/2001 (relating to the inflation of revenue and
Operating Cash Flow and cable subscriber numbers) for which four former executives were indicated in 2005. The company had been under financial pressure following a series of acquisitions; its stock peaked at $27.75 per share in November 1999, before falling to under $1 in 2002.
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On March 22, 2006, Charter announced that it will sell cable systems serving approximately 43,000 customers in Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah to Orange Broadband Holding Company.
Charter will also sell cable systems in West Virginia and Virginia to Cebridge Connections (now known as
Suddenlink Communications ) and cable systems in Kentucky and Illinois to
New Wave Communications .
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In 2006, Charter accelerated sales of
Cable Telephone services using Broadband Telephony technology (or VoIP). Charter suggests a battery backup to reduce the risk of being without phone service in the event main power is lost.
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Customer service representatives are reported to recommend a traditional plain-old telephone system (
POTS ) access line for use with medical devices.
Charter has been criticized for poor customer support and frequent billing consistency issues, causing the
Better Business Bureau to post
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The Better Business Bureau has received numerous complaints regarding this cable, digital TV, and high speed internet access provider. Complainants primarily allege that the firm had improper billing practices, referred customer bills to collection agencies in error, provided poor customer service, used misleading advertising, provided defective internet or cable performance, used improper sales tactics or misrepresented the actual costs of installation and service, failed to properly install or maintain service, damaged customers' property, and failed to honor service appointments.
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PCWorld '' also ranked Charter's
Cable Internet service as worst among 14 major
Internet Service Provider s.
The Best and Worst ISPs
- 1993 - The company was started by three executives; two of them are Barry Babcock, Jerald Kent, and Howard Wood, former executives of Cencom Cable Television in St. Louis, MO.
- 1995 - Charter paid about $300 million for a Controlling Interest in Crown Media .
- 1997 - EarthLink and Charter join forces to deliver High-speed Internet access through cable modems to Charter's customers in California.
- 1998 - Paul Allen buys a controlling interest.
- 1998 - Charter paid $2.8 billion to acquire Dallas cable company Marcus Communications.
- 2000/2001 - The SEC investigates recent acquisitions by the company which leads to the indictment of four former executives for improper financial reporting.
- 1999 - Company goes public, trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
- 2000 - Charter buys select AT&T cable markets, including Reno, NV and the City of St. Louis.
- 2001 - MSN and Charter sign an agreement to offer MSN content and services to Charter’s broadband customers.
- 2001 - Recipient of many awards including the Outstanding Corporate Growth Award from the Association for Corporate Growth, the R.E. "Ted" Turner Innovator of the Year Award from the Southern Cable Telecommunications Association, and the Fast 50 Award for Growth from the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association.
- 2004 - Charter settles a class action lawsuit concerning the questionable financial reporting.
On May 2, 2006, Charter announced it will shut down seven of its
Call Centers in the
U.S. . The call centers closing are in the following locations:
As centers close, an increasing number of calls are being outsourced. Current outsource centers are located in
Cainta, Philippines ;
Panama City, Panama ;
Mexico City, Mexico ;
Laredo, Texas ;
London, Ontario ;
Trenton, Ontario ;
Kamloops, British Columbia ;
Amherst, Nova Scotia ;
Winnipeg, Manitoba ; and
Brasília, Brazil . Charter recently brought
TeleTech onboard to assist with customer support for its growing telephone market, opening a second telephone repair call center located in
Moundsville, West Virginia .
Charter-owned call centers are located in
St. Louis, Missouri ,
Moundsville, West Virginia (telephone service support centers),
Greenville, South Carolina ,
Vancouver, Washington ,
Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin ,
Walker, Michigan ,
Rochester, Minnesota ,
Worcester, Massachusetts and
Louisville, Kentucky with Heathrow, Florida handling the bulk of video, high-speed data, and telephony billing and customer service contacts. Each of the remaining centers are becoming increasingly specialized for particular lines of service or customer issues.
