After reading the article “Charter Cable boosts downloads to 100Mbps, keeps uploads limited to a modest 5Mbps,” I compelled to call Charter up to see if their service would be available in my area, and I did call. Unfortunately, Charter isn’t servicing my area. I guess I have to stick with my slow ISP for now.
Some people might not notice that even though United States is very techie, but the American general population is behind many other parts of the world in regarding to the Internet speed. A commenter who wrote a comment below the Engadget’s article I mentioned above boasted he had only paid $19 for 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload speeds in Lithuania. If that is true, it’s just one example among many other examples that proves American general population is really behind in regarding to the Internet speed.
It’s not a surprise that we might see people who are giddy up and called Charter, because Charter is now providing faster Internet connections at cheaper prices than any other Internet service provider I’ve heard about. For an example, its Express package which touts up to 15 Mbps download speed is almost as fast as AT&T’s most expensive package which touts up to 24 Mbps download speed, but the price for Charter Express package is only one third of AT&T’s fastest Internet package. Charter Express package costs you $19.99/month. The juiciest Charter’s Internet package would be 100Mbps download speed, and it costs roughly the same as AT&T’s fastest Internet package, but AT&T’s fastest Internet package touts only at 24Mbps download speed, about four times slower than Charter Ultra package.
If you look on Charter’s website, it shows that the prices for their Internet service are low as listed if only you bundle. Does this mean you have to order their Internet service with something else too? Perhaps, you have to bundle the Internet and TV services together to keep the price of the Internet service low and enticing?
I forgot to ask Charter’s salesperson about contract. This is why I’m not sure if Charter requires you to sign a contract for however long before they can hook you up with the awesome Internet speed. I’m so hoping Charter isn’t going the contract route, because it’s one more reason for some people to not upgrade their Internet speed. I know I hate services that require me to agree to a contract enough that if I can help myself, I would stay away from such services at any cost.
Charter provides free Internet security suite known as Charter Security Suite to protect users from viruses, worms, trojans, and hackers. I’m not sure the strength of their Internet security product. Usually, Internet service providers would team up with well known security companies such as Symantec. Maybe Charter is doing something similar for their security products too. Nonetheless, I guess you have to find this out for yourself when you become a Charter customer.
Charter salesperson told me customers can also order $5/month Cloud Drive. If I heard correctly, Cloud Drive would be free for the first month of service. Cloud Drive allows customers to back up their data. When I asked the salesperson how much Cloud Drive space a customer could have? She said it is unlimited. If our conversation has any merit, I guess $5/month, unlimited Cloud Drive is a sweet deal. Still, I do not yet know how reliable Charter Cloud Drive would be, therefore I cannot really vouch for Cloud Drive until I really use it.
In conclusion, Charter touts amazing Internet packages that make me drool. If Charter services my area, I would think about becoming a customer of theirs, but it has to do without contract and bundle. I think Charter will eventually push other Internet service providers to provide better services, because it’s all about competition. Unfortunately, it seems even though it’s already highly competitive among Internet service providers within the United States, other parts of the world have already touted faster Internet services for a long time already. In regarding to the Internet speed for the general population, let hope someday we Americans will eventually lead and not play catch up, but today isn’t the day!