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Charter Communications
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Charter Communications 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 fourth-largest (by revenues) cable operator in the U.S., behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications.
ter Communications incorporated in Delaware in 1993. Through a series of acquisitions as well as internally financed growth, the company served 1 million customers in 1998, 3.9 million in 1999, and 6.8 million in 2002.
Four former executives received criminal indictments in 2005 for accounting fraud related primarily to the inflation of cable subscriber numbers.
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Encyclopedia
Charter Communications 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 fourth-largest (by revenues) cable operator in the U.S., behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications.
History
Charter Communications incorporated in Delaware in 1993. Through a series of acquisitions as well as internally financed growth, the company served 1 million customers in 1998, 3.9 million in 1999, and 6.8 million in 2002.
Four former executives received criminal indictments in 2005 for accounting fraud related primarily to the inflation of cable subscriber numbers. The company has been under financial pressure; its stock peaked at $27.75 per share in November 1999, before falling to under $1 in 2002.
In 2006, Charter accelerated sales of cable telephone services using Broadband Telephony technology. Charter suggests a battery backup to reduce the risk of being without phone service in the event main power is lost.
On February 12, 2009, Charter announced that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Selloff of properties
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 (since renamed Baja Broadband).
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.
Wave Broadband recently took over Charter's customer bases on the west coast (except for markets also served by Comcast and Time Warner Cable and a few select rural areas).
On October 14, 2008, an article appeared in the Fairmont, Minnesota Sentinel (), reporting that Charter is selling parts of their system to Midcontinent Communications, including its International Falls, Minnesota office. Starting February 1, 2009 Midcontinent Communications will be taking over some Charter's cable system in Minnesota including Fairmont, Sherburn, International Falls, Canby, Balaton, Bemidji, Ely, Littlefork, and surrounding communities. Other areas in Minnesota will sell to Comcast.
Bankruptcy
On February 12, 2009, Charter Communications announced that it planned to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on or before April 1, 2009. The action would allow Charter to pay its debt obligations, and cancel its obligations to shareholders.
Awards and recognition
In December 2007, Charter was recognized by CableWorld Magazine as "2007 Multi-System Operator of the Year." According to the magazine, the company was selected for this award based on "rapidly expanding its telephone footprint to take advantage of the triple-play offering; developing a consistent, data-driven marketing plan; and addressing its nearest-term debt maturities." During the spring of 2008, Charter was honored with third place among companies with over 2,000 employees in the annual "Best Places to Work in St. Louis" competition, sponsored by the St. Louis Business Journal., based on the response of Charter employees in the area to an online survey created and managed by the Journal.
Criticism
Charter has been criticized for poor customer support and frequent billing consistency issues, causing the Better Business Bureau to post a warning to consumers about the company:
"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.
"
PCWorld also ranked Charter's cable Internet service as worst among 14 major Internet service providers. Charter High-Speed is the second-worst-rated cable ISP on dslreports.com and Consumer Reports indicated in their February 2008 issue that Charter's television/Internet/telephone bundle collectively is the worst of all major national carriers.
The cable network's inability to strike deals with major sports networks such as the Big Ten Network and the NFL Network have led customers to seek other options if they wish to watch sports programming from the majority of established channels. In Wisconsin, Charter has refused to make deals with the Big Ten Network that would allow residents to watch local sporting events. Charter now has an agreement to carry the Big Ten Network, applicable to all customers.
It was reported by Tony Bradle on about.com that Charter Communications redirected error pages and Windows Live Search results to a Charter search page without notifying customers. Users may opt out of redirection by clicking a link from the Charter search page; however, the opt-out link installs a cookie on the customer's computer, so deleting cookies will require the user to opt out again.
It has been reported that on Monday, January 21, 2008 during a routine sweep of inactive accounts, Charter accidentally deleted the email accounts of approximately 14,000 customers and the removed data is now irretrievable. stated that the company would not compensate users in any way but the company to give a $50 account credit to each user affected.
In St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana as of May 4, 2008, Charter and Cox Communications have been unable to reach a deal for the carriage of Cox Sports Television, effectively shutting out a large potential fanbase for the New Orleans Hornets from watching the games on local television.
In May 2008, Charter announced that it planned to monitor websites visited by its high-speed Internet customers via a partnership with targeted advertising firm NebuAd.
But after customers voiced their concerns, Charter changed its mind in June.
In December 2008, WFAA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Dallas/Fort Worth, reported that beginning January 1, 2009, Charter would no longer carry its signal due to a breakdown in negotiations. Charter quickly replied that a resolution to the issue was not out of the question.
In December 2008, WCNC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Charlotte NC, reported that as of December 31, 2008 Charter would no longer carry its signal due to a breakdown in negotiations.
In December 2008, KMOV-TV Channel 4, the CBS affiliate in Saint Louis, MO, reported that it would no longer be available to Charter subscribers starting Dec. 31. Prior to that, only the standard definition signal for KMOV was available on Charter cable.
The cable operator would have lost access to all of the stations owned by Belo Corp, however, an agreement was reached days before the shutdown date.
Timeline
- 1993 — The company was started by three executives; Barry Babcock, Jerald Kent, and Howard Wood, former executives of Cencom Cable Television in St. Louis, MO.
- 1995 — Charter acquires Marcus Cable, a large cable provider, mainly in Wisconsin
- 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.
- 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.
- 2002 — The DOJ investigates the company, leading to the indictment of four former executives for improper financial reporting.
- 2004 — Charter settles a class action lawsuit concerning the questionable financial reporting.
- 2008 — Charter acquires the Cable TV franchise and service for the Cerritos and Ventura, CA area from WAVE Broadband. Many customers will have to swap out their modem and telephone equipment for continued service.
- 2008 — Charter stock fails to meet NASDAQ standards and is given warning to comply by Oct 13 or fill out an extension.
- 2009 - Charter announces that it will reorganize under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code by April 1
Outsourcing
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:
- St. Louis, Missouri Video Customer Care Center (July 31, 2006) (Converted into a Charter Telephone service call center)
- Bay City, Michigan (September 2006) (Converted into a Charter Dispatch center)
- Birmingham, Alabama (December 2006) (Converted into a Charter Dispatch center)
- Ft. Worth, Texas (December 1, 2006) (CLOSED)
- Irwindale, California (December 2006) (CLOSED)
- Newtown, Connecticut (March 2007) (CLOSED)
- Kingsport, Tennessee (March 2007) (Converted to a dispatch center and is being moved)
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; Moundsville, West Virginia; 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.
Charter-owned call centers are located in St. Louis, Missouri (telephone service support center), Greenville, South Carolina, Vancouver, Washington, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Walker, Michigan, Rochester, Minnesota, Worcester, Massachusetts and Louisville, Kentucky (the largest call center enterprise-wide) with Heathrow, Florida handling the bulk of video, high-speed data, and telephone billing and customer service contacts. Each of the remaining centers are becoming increasingly specialized for particular lines of service or customer issues. In contrast, in the fourth quarter of 2007, Louisville call-center employees, who had been handling callers with Internet issues, were told to prepare for cross-training in telephone and video support. In the first quarter of 2008, Louisville call-center employees were offered the opportunity to join into the already existent company directive for Day of Service customer contact thus adding to the already growing, Louisville Center of Excellence.
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