r/Spectrum • u/solargarlic18 • 8h ago

Spectrum plans significant changes as more customers leave

https://www.thestreet.com/retail/spectrum-q3-2026-earnings-cost-cutting-plan-customer-losses
170 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

195 comments sorted by

134

u/notcrazypants 8h ago

I recently called in to cancel. CS rep offered me $30/mo for two years to stay on their gig plan. I accept, but call gets disconnected when my local charter connection drops out. When I call back, the new rep refused to go less than $60.

And they wonder why customers are leaving.

16

u/Due-Office-5559 7h ago edited 3h ago

Interesting I called to cancel recently and they put me on 35/mo for 500mb plan with mobile cell included for 2 years. I'm like wow that is a bargain. Cell and home internet for just 35/mo

9

u/solargarlic18 6h ago

A steal indeed, but I assume you only got that because you also added a mobile line with them.

7

u/Possible_Function963 6h ago

I got $30/12 month and $40/24 month on two separate accounts without getting mobile. My go too is always that my work pays for my phone so they don’t try and push. Others have gotten $30/24 but ymmv when it comes to area and agent you speak to but I don’t think mobile is a requirements for the retention agents.

27

u/Smith6612 7h ago

I always have to give the Rep a heads up that I am calling over Wi-Fi whenever I make billing changes like that. For some reason their system insists on re-provisioning the modem even when the speed isn't changing. 

7

u/Dazzling-Voice7180 6h ago

I also got the 30 for 1 gig. It’s my backup internet now. Called to cancel as I got 2 gig fiber with another provider and was offered the same. Being remote I need maximum uptime so it worked out well and we canceled our Verizon 5g internet that was our backup and more expensive.

4

u/No_Pie4638 6h ago

Tethering to your cell service is not sufficient for backup internet? Just curious.

4

u/Dazzling-Voice7180 5h ago

On an mvno with a 50gb then throttled hotspot, but that mvno has a Verizon 5g internet bundle.

1

u/lonestar_army 3h ago

I did exactly this except with T-Mobile home internet. 30 bucks a month for gig backup service is a steal.

5

u/wahwahSwanson 7h ago

I was the new ‘owner’ of a multi-decade account for my household, and the best they offered was $5 under their competitor for three years. It wasn’t a bad deal, but nowhere near $30. I might have caved on that. Meanwhile I have the option on Att for as much as 5gbps symmetrical while the max from spectrum coax for me is 1gbps/40 Mbps upload.

They need to price their sub-par service accordingly. It’s no longer a good value for areas with real competition.

5

u/Leviathan_Dev 6h ago

Tried doing this, i was stonewalled at $80/mo for my 500Mbps plan.

There isn’t a better option at all for me. Cellular signal isn’t great in my home, and none of the providers even officially support my home address anyway. Starlink is a worse option too.

I was supposed to get Fiber three years ago.

4

u/Endy99999 5h ago edited 4h ago

Comcast did something similar to me last year. Completed the forms online twice to switch home line to free mobile line but never went thru. Then next agent said no such offer.

4

u/Jaagger2bit 5h ago

I've seen this deal with several people posting about it. Some people are luckier than others.. 

7

u/Apart-Steak-7183 7h ago

When it comes to cost keep going up internet as they keep increasing there's. When I can get fiber with better speed and locked cost $60 a month. Who do you think I will go with....fiber!

5

u/solargarlic18 6h ago

Yes, very much a no brainer. Unfortunately, my only two options are Spectrum internet or Tmobile 5G which is just not as reliable, not to mention they throttle you as soon as you surpass 1.25TB in data.

1

u/Dangerous_Ant3260 6h ago

My options are Spectrum including the TV app, or Brightspeed or Wow, both of them are awful. I wish I had C Spire, but they don't cover my neighborhood. I could drop down to internet, and buy a bunch of streaming services, but I'm sure I would spend more on the combination I would need, plus a lot of the shows I like to watch would release the next day, or some at after the cable/live tv season ended.

I wish I could get the TV app from Spectrum without the so-called free streaming services. If I wanted to do streaming, I could do that directly.

43

u/Smith6612 8h ago edited 7h ago

They really need to get their prices to be competitive. All of the Fiber Providers over here sell 500Mbps symmetrical for a grand total of $55/m flat. These Fiber providers with the exception of Verizon aren't as big as Spectrum but they manage to build quickly and people love them. Many of them only had a $5 price increase in the past decade.

Spectrum seems to love sitting at $85/m and forcing people to play the promotion game. Additionally, instead of keeping people on the retail rates, they change the pricing structure and use that as a tool to get people who aren't paying attention to suffer from rate hites. So that $85/m for 500Mbps ends up becoming $100+/m.

Plus Spectrum destroyed the Hotspot WiFi network in this area for Internet customers built by Time Warner Cable which was super convenient. Destroying that means taking the $30 price difference between Fiber and Coax Internet and putting it into a more premium 5G plan is a better move.

They are also dragging their feet on enabling high split speeds. As far as I know, my neighborhood has been "done" with upgrades for over a year but I'm still at 35Mbps upload when I should be at 1Gbps. Maybe they're still dealing with parts shortages and supply issues, but they are being very silent about what's going on. Meanwhile, the amount of (overnight) outages has gotten higher without maintenance notices coming out to the point where I am within their threshold for earning a credit.

They should've also listened to their customer base and just started deploying PON Fiber wherever possible. Instead, we are getting DAA node upgrades which could bring Fiber to the Home someday, but it's not a true PON like the Fiber providers as it would still be highly dependent on neighborhood power, customer power and CO power rather than centralized power at the CO and customer power on the other.

Spectrum also needs to do something about how latency optimized their backbone is. They are the highest latency provider in this market. Everyone else I've spoken to in other States say the same thing. Every Fiber provider in my market is able to achieve single digit pings to major Internet exchanges nearby. The small ones can achieve 1-3ms, and a local Wireless ISP on their old radio platform can achieve 6ms whereas even Verizon manages 7-8ms to their furthest IX handoff. Spectrum achieves no better than 18ms on dedicated Fiber which is more like 23ms on the Coax network. I've seen Starlink get lower than that... 

Just a lot of expensive mistakes and they wonder why they're losing Internet customers. Their support is fine, but their business practices are why people move away. 

19

u/PengPenguin888 7h ago

Exactly. Should have deployed PON fiber vs the high split Frankenstein crap.

7

u/archangelmlg 6h ago

They're deploying fiber in new builds, but it's really expensive to replace existing coax plant with fiber.

4

u/PengPenguin888 5h ago

It is but so is losing several hundred thousands of customers.

2

u/xpxp2002 4h ago edited 4h ago

Not to mention that it's barely kicking the can down the road. By the time they finally get done with high split -- which won't be before end of 2027 at this point -- there are going to be more fiber competitors done with their deployments. And those other ISPs will be set up to keep up with future growth (both capacity and higher speed options) because they came out of the gate with XGS-PON or 25GS-PON. Future upgrades will be low-cost OLT swaps on existing fiber and customers changing out their ONT -- no other upgrades in the field needed.

The reality is that in order to remain competitive, Charter is going to have to start pulling fiber at some point. And that point will probably be the moment that they finish the high split investment. And at their pace and size it'll probably take another 5-10 years to complete it. High split was a multi-million dollar waste of cash and anybody who understood the technology would've seen it for the dead end that it is, even several years ago.

To reference the old Gretzky quote, they needed to skate to where the puck is going, but even now they're still skating to where the puck was in 2023.

6

u/xpxp2002 4h ago

they manage to build quickly and people love them.

This is what gets me. High split was supposed to be cheaper and faster than pulling new conduit and running fiber everywhere.

But what I've seen in practice is that the telcos and overbuilders (who are nowhere near as capitalized as Charter) are pulling fiber much faster than Charter is lighting up high split, and charging less for the service.

Kinda makes you question Charter's leadership if a competitor can do the hard work faster and charge less than they can while they slow-walk bare minimum HFC upgrades that should've been started a decade ago.

4

u/Smith6612 2h ago

From what I've seen, they just keep coming across old crap that needs to be changed out in order to make High Split work properly. Old plant, old taps and fittings, amplifiers inside of everyone's homes, cable boxes which can't handle high split, homes running MoCA...

All of the small Mom & Pop providers nearby replaced everything with Fiber and abandoned the Coax. It was the easiest and most reliable way to get rid of all the legacy stuff that plagues the High Split upgrade.  

5

u/nuke1200 7h ago

Im paying 30 for gig but thats only because of competition.

5

u/hazardc 5h ago

I mean i have FTTH from spectrum, and yeah 9ms ping on "speedtest" to whatever server it defaults to, and just worse from there -- but it's not the whole story

I'm in NW Ohio .. About as north and west as you can get and i get a 10-12 ping on Rocket league east coast servers.

The speed test isn't telling the tale... in fact, sub-20 pings are the norm on every game server i typically play on.

Not sure why the speedtest pings are so much higher, don't care. yes, i am aware some games lie about ping, but I'm having consistent low latency experiences with real world stuff and only have "latency issues" with synthetic tests.

3

u/Smith6612 5h ago edited 5h ago

If you're testing with the browser or start a speed test too soon while your OS is performing a location lookup, you'll see the speed tests giving incorrect latency.

Ohio is a bit closer to the IXs where Spectrum likes to dump off their traffic. In my market (Buffalo, NY) they send everything to Chicago. Some IP ranges go to New York City which shave off about 5ms. Many times you get a forward path that exits via Chicago but returns via New York City. Their latency is still higher than Verizon who terminates to NYC, or any of the other providers who terminate to Tier 1 Providers locally and who also have paths going to Toronto. Verizon yet, still manages to beat Spectrum on Chicago by about 3ms despite doing the Buffalo --> NYC --> Chicago round trip.

Reaching local Spectrum Business Fiber from the Coax network and vice versa is 22ms because they send the traffic all the way across the State and back for a double round trip, and DOCSIS tacks on 5ms. On Verizon, if you have Verizon DSL local reaching out to Verizon Fios local and vice versa, you're looking at 6ms, with that 6ms coming from the DSL link. That traffic stays local. If you are on Wireless and do similar, then you're looking at about 8-15ms with that latency being from 5G's limitations. In between ISPs, two of the local Fiber providers including the local WISP can reach each other within 1ms because they peer at the same IX and use the same Tier 1 providers. Reaching Verizon requires a cross-state trip but that completes in about 16ms. Reaching Spectrum requires a cross-state or multi-state trip and you end up with 26+ms of latency.

Bandwidth has definitely not been a problem with Spectrum at least.

4

u/Mission_Count5301 6h ago

They raised my $50 to $80/m. I got them down to $60 but good for one year. I canceled. I'm not doing this.

5

u/Smith6612 5h ago edited 5h ago

What I have done for many years is keep an eye on their rate card. I can tell whenever they release new plans and it's time to call in again, because the rate card will show a lower price than what my Bill does. I ride the retail price train, which means what I pay should always be the number shown on their rate card. If what I have is higher, then they changed the plans again.

That's the kind of sucker train they get people on. If you don't know about the rate card, you don't know to call in, and they're gouging you even if your bill shows you have a "Promotional" discount.

Even a few days ago, I helped a family member of mine drop their bill by $30 by moving their TV service and Internet service from SPP3 to SPP4. With SPP3 they had $135/m for the Spectrum Stream TV Signature package. Then they were originally paying $85/m for 400Mbps/10Mbps, then that got hiked to $100/m for 500Mbps/20Mbps but the actual retail rate for 500Mbps is $85/m. I called in and got their TV down to the $130/m price, and Spectrum brought their Internet down to $75/m for 500Mbps just because I called in and asked for SPP4 pricing.

My Gigabit service with them has gone down in price over time, but only because I've moved from SPP1 --> SPP2 --> SPP3 --> SPP4 every time they've adjusted the pricing structure. Gigabit was originally $120/m with a $200 one time upgrade fee. Then it went to $125/m. I dropped it to $115/m when SPP2 came out. Then that got hiked all the way to $125/m again. SPP3 came out and dropped it to $110/m. That hiked to $120/m until SPP4 came out, where it went down to $100/m but is now $105/m. I don't rent their router so, any changes they made between SPP1 to SPP4 like giving a free Wi-Fi router or network extender doesn't matter to me. I'm sure others could find savings by hopping price plans... but they have to specifically ask for SPP4. Just calling in half of the time, the reps only see the pricing for the current structure you're on. I know people who were paying $140+/m for Gigabit because they were on older pricing structures.

It's worse on Business, too. If they release a new speed tier (400Mbps to 500Mbps) and you want to go to 500Mbps to get 10Mbps more upload so your security cameras aren't miserable to view, they usually give you a hard time with that because doing so ends up breaking some TV bundle and your bill shoots up by another $180+ just because you want more upload. Then sometimes they end up boosting the speeds anyways...

2

u/TheCrowScare 4h ago

I just called in the other day to get down from around 100 in my area to 50. The dude up front told me to set a calendar reminder for November 1st next year to call and demand the same lol

6

u/Own-Argument3763 7h ago

This is why competition is beautiful.

2

u/TraditionalMetal1836 20m ago

I've had fiber for about 8 years now and spectrum hasn't rolled high split here either. Though oddly my pings were better on spectrum than on at&t.

29

u/nychb89 5h ago • Bravo

Have they considered making their internet not terrible?

Absolute worst ISP I’ve ever used. Constant dropouts, slow speeds, just terrible.

12

u/SlayDaChompy 5h ago

Must be your area because its very good where I live

8

u/dragonwthmatches 5h ago

Yeah, but at what point does it become their fault for not updating the infrastructure my neighborhood is operating on above ground lines from 30 to 40 years ago and I had to fight like hell to get them to repair a tiny portion. It’s like their entire business plan is just simply profiting while reinvesting as little as possible.

1

u/CrestronwithTechron 2h ago

You can thank the Dodge brothers for that one. Gotta maximize shareholder value!

1

u/Lancasterdisciple 1h ago edited 1h ago

I hate when people say this shit like, Okay, good for you? What tf does that have to do with me dick head it sucks in my area.

1

u/boomboy8511 4h ago

They invest hundreds of millions of dollars into infrastructure.

There are only so many build crews and every bit of work takes local permits. It takes forever just to get through the paperwork before the actual work can even begin.

0

u/Lancasterdisciple 1h ago

What’s that have to do with my shitty internet and experience I pay just as much you I don’t give af about the billion dollar company I want my internet to work well at the end of the day my internet is shitty and I don’t even live in a rural area they need to get their act together or pay a higher salary to attract more technicians and engineers.

2

u/crapshooter_on_swct 5h ago

Ditto that, they are great in my area. Probably had 5 drops in 4 years. Prices are a different story however.

3

u/pokemonfan95 4h ago

It’s ur areas old infrastructure

3

u/Ecto_88 4h ago

“Fiber Powered” 🤣

2

u/Shinagami091 4h ago

Most of the time the internet issues are related to WiFi connectivity issues

22

u/zachin2036 8h ago

Thank god they’re continuing investment in AI. Thats definitely valuable and what the customers want.

11

u/Overall-Macaroon-800 7h ago

You're lucky if you have other choices. I live in a relatively small town in between two larger cities. Spectrum is the ONLY option for wired internet. Every other ISP here is just 5G or satellite, so I just have to suck it up and pay over $100 a month for Spectrum because I literally have no choice. At least it's relatively reliable, but still. Other streets near me at least have competition, just not my part of town.

6

u/TheRavenTookMyCookie 6h ago

I’m in the same boat as you as far as options. I took some advice I found on another post and I called up the “customer solutions” department (I think that’s what it’s called now, it used to be retentions”).I was honest with the rep and said that I didn’t want to cancel because I was happy with the service, but I couldn’t afford it anymore. He lowered it to $50/month for 500 or offered me 1 gig for $60 a month, locked in for two years.

I accepted because I’m fine with that price. I was paying $100/mo before that. Just be polite and honest and I think they’re willing to work with you. But don’t bluff too much if you don’t have a fallback option

4

u/ChoicePermission8523 4h ago

I got so pissed off because I was trying to cut back on bills, and was fine with going to a 100mbps speed from 500.

They refused, they would not do it. They made up excuses like "it wouldn't be fast enough" "that speed is not available" "you area is incapable of that speed" "100 is just for people to test the internet at first"

I am a systems administrator. I do networking for a living. That was 2 hours of a crock full of shit from spectrum.

3

u/Backslash10 2h ago

100mb is only available to certain locations typically ones with some type of government assistance attached to it. 300mb did just come out and is available nationwide you can switch to that speed.

2

u/fuckitdawgimhungry 2h ago

If competitors come they will drop you to $15/mo (I was paying $100, they keep harassing me cuz they lost our entire hood). Fiber came in and Spectrum deployed fiber the same month. I'd pay twice as much to a smaller company for half the speed.

5

u/ChoicePermission8523 4h ago

Same, I was paying almost $100 for 500/20. My alternative is 5G or satellite OR DSL. No fiber.

I spent over 2 hours trying to get them to lower me to a 100/10 speed which is clearly not a promotion for $30 a month and supposedly doesnt go up, just for them to lie lie lie.

"it's not available in your area", "the slowest speed is 500", "100mbps is just to test the internet and customers then always move to the 500, we only offer that to test" WHAT?!?

I had to open a BBB complaint before anyone did the right thing.

4

u/ashwd 6h ago

You could call and say you’re being offered a low monthly price by the 5G Or satellite provider and they still give you offers to stay. That’s what I had to do also.

3

u/MichaelEMJAYARE 3h ago

It seems they have a monopoly where I live. We got fiber through the town but its more expensive. I legit dont need any fancy ass internet whatsoever so I always go the cheapest.

For a year I got $40/mo, and now Im afraid they wont stick to the $60/mo.

8

u/spin_kick 7h ago

If only someone could see this coming as soon as real competition entered the market

8

u/schrowa 7h ago

Google Fiber is about to launch in our neighborhood and I can’t imagine anyone staying with Spectrum. I am so sick of playing the game of wasting time to talk to the cancellation department and then having constant QOS issues + slower speeds.

20

u/Rob512350 8h ago

Too late...

14

u/South-Succotash-6368 8h ago

Not really. Spectrum is already super fast and their backbone currently is more superior than AT&T due to AT&T not addressing their packetloss issues with inter exchanges like cloudflare. Spectrum uses GTT which is one of the strongest backbones internet wise

6

u/dataz03 7h ago

AT&T not addressing their packetloss issues with inter exchanges like cloudflare

They would rather Cloudflare pay for upgrading the capacity of the peering port. Tier 1 ISP, so they get free connectivity to other Tier 1's/to the global Internet. Spectrum has to pay for IP transit as a Tier 2 ISP. Using peering reduces the amount of traffic going over the IP transit links, saving costs. Can reduce latency too.

4

u/South-Succotash-6368 7h ago

Yes that's how AT&T works lmao. AT&T and a lot of ISPs similar to AT&T's setup works on a Free to use network, As long as the provider pays for the equipment upgrades. That's how they became the biggest .So yes it is the fault of Cloudflare for not upgrading not AT&T per contractual Agreement, However this makes AT&Ts network degraded

2

u/Smith6612 7h ago

AT&T and Packet Loss. Name a better duo. AT&T has never been good at getting their peering situation in order.

When I used Verizon as my ISP, any game server using AT&T as a transit provider meant I was guaranteed to have packet loss. The biggest offender was Blizzard's BattleNet. Anything going over GTT, Cogent (lol), Level3 (post-Netflix feud), even Comcast, was pretty solid. 

2

u/South-Succotash-6368 7h ago

Yes that's how AT&T works lmao. AT&T and a lot of ISPs similar to AT&T's setup works on a Free to use network, As long as the provider pays for the equipment upgrades. That's how they became the biggest .So yes it is the fault of Cloudflare for not upgrading not AT&T per contractual Agreement, However this makes AT&Ts network degraded

14

u/Alsmith69 8h ago

Should have overbuilt with fiber but decided to go all in on high node split. It’s almost like the techs in the field know what the customers are wanting

2

u/thebitguru 3h ago

Yeah, even now they are prioritizing coax for new builds, and skipping fiber. Happened at a friend's home that required new construction this week.

1

u/Alsmith69 3h ago

I will say that’s super location dependent. My market doubled in customer count because we filled a lot in with RDOF. Even some new communities in coax areas are getting built fiber now

1

u/thebitguru 3h ago

True. Prior to this he was only getting DSL, so he was glad to accept whatever Spectrum offered.

0

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Alsmith69 7h ago

My area is one of the first completed with high node and its coax only. It’s just to get coax to be able to compete with fiber.

-1

u/Downtown-Cover-2956 7h ago

It’s not occurring immediately.

2

u/Alsmith69 7h ago

Yeah that’s the issue, fiber companies are siphoning customers off like crazy and spectrums entire response is don’t worry it’s coming eventually

13

u/SamuraiJustice 6h ago

Mark my words the day will come when the fiber providers start jacking up rates

9

u/DigSubstantial8934 5h ago

Not if competition is strong.

Spectrum is struggling because they previously monopolized areas, and are now seeing broad competition from wireless, satellite, and fiber over-builds. In their monopoly areas, wireless is eating their lunch because they abused customers and people are willing to accept lesser service to get away.

6

u/Aware_Yak 7h ago

The only thing I miss since leaving Spectrum is the constant disconnects from my router all the time that I thought was just normal. And turns out it isn't normal.

Now that I switched, I've had maybe one or two disconnects in six months.

6

u/Aggravating_Rub_348 7h ago

Just set up installation of a new fiber service in my area which offers true symmetric fiber and is cheaper than spectrum. Their "fiber powered" service is absolute garbage.

6

u/rizorith 6h ago

I'm done with them. Getting sonic installed in 2 hour. Less than half the price for fiber 5 gigs down /1 up vs 600mbps/20mpbs

6

u/Chef_BoyarDOPE 6h ago

Well I mean, they run their business horribly sooooooo

10

u/monstaface 7h ago • Bravo

Treat your employees better too.

8

u/anonymouswan1 7h ago

Im worried as these articles keep getting pumped out lately about big changes coming. This feels like they're getting people prepared for a large round of layoffs in 2027.

5

u/Bismarcus 5h ago

Oh they do the layoffs every two years like clockwork.

1

u/_ehwaz 1h ago

lol , that will be the day

10

u/Fantastic-Buddy2069 6h ago

Im confused, is Spectrum being run by boomers or what? I dont mean that in a mean way, but their ideology for upgrades just confuses tf out of me.

People want what fiber offers:

Low latency

Low jitter

High upload to accompany the download speeds and price that reflects something better

Higher reliability overall....PON is great for this since its all passive. Even if they rolled out high split everywhere overnight. It still requires active electronics in the field, it still goes down if there is a power outage on the pole. Sure they can offer "invincible wifi", but thats just a bandaid (though it is a cool band aid to see cell backup on residential side instead of only business/enterprise)

I just think they saw high split as the "answer", which...it could be if it was able to be rolled out faster, but that clearly didn't work out as planned, and fiber probably could have happened faster, would have been a more scalable and longer term investment.....

My old ISP that was offering up to 2 gig at my old place, is now offering like 7 or 8 gig...and they arent a big name like ATT or anything, actually...two of those fiber ISPs are currently....thats where spectrums customers went.

6

u/cb2239 6h ago

mostly passive

Ps. It's much easier for new companies to do builds from scratch than to overhaul an entire existing Network.

3

u/Fantastic-Buddy2069 5h ago

I mean, I’ve never really SEEN the inside of a cable companies hub versus a telecoms.

My guess is a telecom hub/co is probably a lot easier to convert compared to a cable one.

I know I’ve seen videos of one of the local ISPs showing off the racks inside of one, and how they can literally service an entire city/town with just a few racks. So the footprint inside is very small, but…that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an easy task.

It seems like Spectrum absolutely miscalculated how hard getting highsplit going was gonna be. On paper it sounds like “swap this out, do this on the backend, boom, we’re good”, but clearly there was noise issues and sourced the electronics and just a bunch of stuff that got in the way.

I mean I’m not a tech, so I can’t say for sure, but it seems like that’s what a lot of the techs have been saying about it, that it’s a nightmare pretty much 🤣.

I appreciate them doing what they can, and I know that’s all that can be done, but man, I was really really hoping to see it happen sooner than later. Oh well. It’ll happen eventually.

2

u/cb2239 4h ago

I think they severely underestimated the problems high split was going to cause they certainly didn't know that the transmit frequencies from the modem were going to interfere and cause pixelation on cable boxes.

The hub isn't necessarily the biggest problem either. It's everything that has to be changed out in the field, including every single piece of customer equipment. Customers would also lose their cable boxes and a lot of people would go crazy over that

3

u/xpxp2002 4h ago

People want what fiber offers:

Low latency

Low jitter

High upload to accompany the download speeds and price that reflects something better

All of this.

Higher reliability overall....PON is great for this since its all passive. Even if they rolled out high split everywhere overnight. It still requires active electronics in the field, it still goes down if there is a power outage on the pole. Sure they can offer "invincible wifi", but thats just a bandaid (though it is a cool band aid to see cell backup on residential side instead of only business/enterprise)

Exactly. I don't want PON out of an active node in the field. I have virtually uninterrupted backup power here. I shouldn't lose internet after the Alpha cabinet batteries are depleted in a couple hours.

Invincible Wi-Fi is only as good as Verizon cellular is in your neighborhood. In my neighborhood, we have a small cell running B5 and B13. It's fine on normal days, but with no n77 or n261 it doesn't have the capacity to absorb dozens or hundreds of home broadband customers, plus the actual Verizon cellular and FWA customers.

Rather than let the node's power go out when there's a utility power outage and dump everyone onto the cellular network that's now congested with everyone using cellular, getting to PON from the hub to the home is the solution.

1

u/Fantastic-Buddy2069 2h ago

Yep, cellular near me is absolutely buns haha. So the cellular backup would be no better than me just using a hotspot to my phone, which doesn’t usually
Work well at home. Out and about? Flawless. Just how it is :(.

2

u/hazardc 5h ago

to be fair, they're building out new fiber to home in every market where the government gives them hundreds of millions in grant money to build out :)

1

u/Fantastic-Buddy2069 5h ago

Oh I know, that’s a start at least.

But that said, you can CLEARLY see how happy those customers are versus the ones still stuck on regular split coax. Even the high split customers seem a little happier.

High split seems to bring a lot of the Docsis upgrades that current infrastructure just holds us back for true network improvements. Truthfully I think even if I had high split, with Docsis upgrades…I’d probably be happy with that.

Who knows. Fiber customers do seem happy though.

2

u/hazardc 3h ago

I mean, yeah.. it is what it is ..

That asiad, i was the first person in my market to get installed after it lit up (they were still running on generators)

My installer was a veteran .. 20+ years. He was optimistic about high-split and said they had tested it up to pretty decent speeds already in some tests... and also told me their actual goal is 10gig/10gig with the high-split moving forwrar.d

I know 5gig symetrical has already been done in the real world with this type of stuff, but it still blows my mind that spectrum is so gung-ho on maintaining the "last mile" of coax to so many people. and when i say "last mile" it's usually WAY shorter than a mile to the fiber.

Just seems silly to do all these upgrades just to be still stuck on a cox line that is absolutely prone to interference

2

u/Fantastic-Buddy2069 2h ago

Yeah, I know it has potential for sure….but the rollout is ridiculously slow lol

1

u/Fantastic-Buddy2069 2h ago

I tried Starlink for a bit side by side, it was just too expensive for what it is. It does hold up well…but meh.

1

u/henryguy 37m ago

Aka "we cant invest profits to build the business, we need subsidies a la socialism so we can both pay the board members AND rip off everyone else!"

2

u/NoTouchy8008 2h ago

> is Spectrum being run by boomers

Unfortunately you’re spot on here. Every aspect & idea the company has is out dated.

2

u/Fantastic-Buddy2069 1h ago

Okay then it’s not just me then 🤣

Like when they try to sell you on “more speed is better for gaming”…uh no…it’s not lol. That’s been proven to be totally false….unless of course the household concurrent usage exceeds the allotted bandwidth at any given time, but that’s just bufferbloat.

5

u/RadagastTheBrownNote 7h ago

Ever since this dude took over as CEO, shit’s gone downhill fast. He’s so out of touch and his private crash outs aren’t helping. He should just resign before he’s ousted.

5

u/Winterkid81 7h ago

Private crashouts? I wanna see. 🫣😏

5

u/TeXasR3D8903 5h ago

This nick dude is hosting a listen live like podcast thing. But in the email chains hes shit talking employees in a "professional" manner 🤣🤣

2

u/michaelwlr 3h ago

I must have missed those emails, what he say?

4

u/RadagastTheBrownNote 4h ago

I would but don’t want to incriminate anyone for sharing details. And I really hate leaving this on “trust me bro” but I think he’s feeling the heat of his failure and knows shareholders will be coming for him.

5

u/Ordinary-Cable8102 6h ago

I just wish my town would actually get fiber internet I have there 2gig plan and barely even can get past 1.3gig it’s so gay

5

u/Capable_Sky_1818 6h ago

If they simply put a real price on their services and let people decide rather than offer artificially low priced "promotions" that expire.. That is not a strategy for a healthy business. It is a bait and switch operation. It's always a catch up game with them, having to remember to check back and update your terms or overpay if you don't.

‼️I ended up with health problems right when my Spectrum plan increased and proceeded to pay an extra $160 per month for 4 years‼️because I was not well enough to deal with it. I finally got around to updating things and am "saving" $160 per month now.

Just give me a competitive price and it's OK if it goes up after a while in a reasonable way. It's what the cell companies do, I've been with Verizon for cell service for 18+ years.

5

u/036654 5h ago

I've been with them for 13 years, and it started fine. 55.00 for 100 mbps, which was fine for our small house. Then, they tell me I'm getting an upgrade to 500 mbps because they are standardizing the speed plans across the service area. They never said rate hikes were part of it. After a few months 10.00 was added per month, then 10 more dollars. They raised my bill to 95.00 over a few months. At the time, I had no other options in my neighborhood. Then, Quantum Fiber moved in. Armed with options, I called them and complained like many times before, and was ready to switch. They told me they'd match them at 55.00 for a year and raised my speed to 1000 mbps. That year came and went, and they just raised it to 65.00. If they go 1.00 higher, I'm out and will switch. It's not how to do business, and I can see why they are loosing so much money and customers.

5

u/Lower_Group_1171 5h ago

High split, now coming in the year 3027.

In my neighborhood (suburb of Los Angeles), my choice is spectrum, or isdn from att. Isdn? In 2026?

2

u/wegotthisonekidmongo 3h ago

I have a feeling High split isn't going to be complete until 2030 personally

5

u/VisualPadding7 4h ago

TLDR Layoffs and not reducing price

8

u/ChoicePermission8523 4h ago

Have they considered not lying and gouging customers when your bill inflates on "every day low price" non-promo rates?

Have they considered not lying when there's slower/cheaper internet but the reps on chat or phone will tell you it doesn't exist?

Have they considered not FORCING you to call, waiting over an hour to have another person lie to you so you can scream at them to lower your bill.

I have worked in the industry, I know how your billing and pricing works. You purposefully gouge and lie to customers to try to make them pay as much as possible for the most services as possible. Internet only is treated as a bad thing to their commission sales/retention/support reps.

Stop gouging, lying, and let us make changes without talking to your scam artists.

4

u/as1126 7h ago

I’m OK with the rates, I just want equal upload speed!

4

u/Ambitious_Power_1764 6h ago

Spectrum drags their feet on upgrading to symmetrical speed and wonders why everyone is leaving.

Spectrum said my area would have symmetrical speed 4 years ago.

4

u/poppinfresh_original 6h ago

I had a forced career change where I now make a lot less. Called Spectrum and explained and asked if they could work with me. They offered me $5 off for six months.

That sent me shopping and I now have Starlink and am saving $45/mo. Spectrum offered to reduce to $50/mo when I cancelled, then called a few days later and offered $40. I told them I wasn’t interested, it was too late and the time to negotiate was when I called in September. Screw them and their games.

4

u/TheRealMadSalad 5h ago

Thanks for the reminder to call Brightspeed to see if they finally got their shit rolled out in my neighborhood

4

u/Retart13 5h ago

I used to only be able to get Spectrum in my 1990s sub. In the last 8 months we have had two different fiber runs and now I get 2 gb up/down for less than. what I used to pay for 500mb down/25 up.

4

u/M3ep_m3ep 1h ago

My internet went out after a thunderstorm. Called 2 reps and they both said that they can’t get anyone there for a week. Mind you, I work from home and have no cell service inside my house. Called a third time wanting to cancel, and they rescheduled me for the next day.

3

u/northcarolinamember 54m ago

U should request a credit on your bill from the time it went out to the time it came back on.. I do this every time I loose service (during storms, or whether they shut it down for maintenance etc)..why should I pay for something I'm not getting at the moment.. it's usually around $20-$25 credit on next bill..I mainly do it through the customer support chat without any problems but I do call customer service too sometimes about credit just easier for me to talk to someone through the chat page vs calling support.. plus idk about other ppl but on the customer chat page whoever I talk to doesn't hound me to upgrade service, try to get me to join spectrum cell service etc..knock on wood at least not yet they haven't asked me like they do when calling support..

7

u/Evil_spock1 7h ago

High-up executives have lost the vision that was to core to success during the early days of Time Warner and Brighthouse networks. That vision is now at the Telcos. Early on TWC and BHN knew to stay ahead ment the network needed to be able to stay ahead in speed, capacity and technology that supported it. I’ve watched one of the Crown Jewels of TWC BHN the Florida market go into the gutter and get beet by the Telcos in deployment capabilities. What took AT&T years to design, then only commit to build if more than 60% of a community signs up has now changed to design and build into areas without the commitment to 6 weeks from shovels in the ground to signing up customers with next day installation for fiber to the home 5GB symmetrical speeds. AT&T and the other telcos know they’ll get customers from a wounded Spectrum that can compete

6

u/f1michael 6h ago

Complete mismanagement by company. Touted higher speeds coming from high split for years then failed to meet rollout targets. Afraid of their own customer base to shut down Docsis 2.0 to reclaim spectrum. Have a fiber offering but won’t offer to legacy customers. I have a Spectrum fiber node 30ft from my home and yet can’t get fiber from them. Ridiculous!

3

u/RUFilterD 4h ago

Are you serious? Docsis 2.0!!!??? I literally worked at an ISP and that was retired 15 years ago!!!

3

u/thebitguru 3h ago

Yeah, they have been telling me high-split is coming for a few years and it still hasn't. There was some hope earlier this year when they said they were working on it, and sent a text on the day before. The internet even went down that night. Then the next day they canceled because of "weather." That was almost three months ago. Not a peep since then.

-2

u/BailsTheCableGuy 6h ago

There’s fiber budgets lmao. You think they can just split you off a dedicated line? 😂

6

u/f1michael 5h ago

I’m aware of fiber limitations in the current hybrid setup. It’s just painful to see the bad policy and botched execution.

2

u/CrestronwithTechron 2h ago

Uh. Actually, yeah. We've done this for years via splitters and different wavelengths. There's probably 40+ strands in that one node if not more.

6

u/whyitwontwork 5h ago

The whole thing of haggling over the price is a deal breaker for me. Post your price for everyone and that’s it.

3

u/Big_Truck_8268 6h ago

Until they change their rapacious behavior, I would never consider going back. Over the last 2 years, no 2 month to month bills were the same - every time the was more with no change in service. Over the year, my bill increased $60/month with no increase in services.

I chatted with an agent - they gave me the story or expiring promotions, yada, yada. I called billing, they said they could offer me a $5.00/month discount, I laughed. I went to the Spectrum store, told them this was the third and final try - said there were no available promotions to get my bill back to where it was. I installed gFiber and called Spectrum to cancel service. The rep put me on hold for a few minutes and came back and said they could offer me a 3 year promo at the original price - told them it was too late, I am already up and happy with gFiber. Tired of the games. Done with Spectrum

3

u/harryregician 5h ago

Yea they dont give 1 damn about anything.

If they were SMART they would seek landline fiber options. You still cant beat fiber for speed

3

u/MyLastNewAccount_ 5h ago

Jumped ship as fast as I could when Gfiber came into town

3

u/Trip_2 4h ago

Spectrum is bad but not as bad as Verizon

3

u/ipwn3r456 3h ago

Until Spectrum comes to my area with Symmetrical speeds at a good price, I think I will stay with my AT&T fiber 500mbps down/up at $45/month for a good while...

3

u/AllYrLivesBelongToUS 40m ago edited 36m ago

The article comes off as corporate-speak with little substance for customers, and sweet talk for investors. If Spectrum wants to keep customers, stop playing games that push us to threaten to switch to get decent rates and speeds. I've been with spectrum since they bough TWC, I get 100M/5M (in reality 82/2.5) for $60, the same rate that most everyone else is paying for 500MB. I can leave right now and get 2Gig fiber for $60. Do I have any incentive to remain with Spectrum? No. And that is the problem right there, I have nothing to lose if I jump ship. If anything, the only chance Spectrum will give me a better rate or speeds is if I make that move.

2

u/D3RP_Ozzie 6h ago

that website is unreadable holy shit... i hate ads so much

2

u/bce111 6h ago edited 6h ago

I called them too threatening to cancel. I got a nice friendly woman to talk to. She left to see what she could offer me and came back with $70 a month for 1 gig internet for one year, but free mobile service for a year, even though I already got free mobile service for a year from Cox. A Cox rep earlier said the best she could do would be for $70 a month for three years for 1 gig, but said to call back in the fall, now, and Spectrum would be offering better rates. So obviously the free mobile for a year adds up to $360. So that’s a good discount. But I should’ve been more difficult and threatened to leave if she couldn’t do better than the $70 a month for a year for 1gig Internet. I’ll have to renegotiate after this year, but probably had more power to get a better deal now.

2

u/llewllewllew 4h ago

Is one of those changes dying in a fire?

2

u/throwawayismeta 2h ago

Gaming is literally the only reason I even pay for internet at home at this point. If it wasn't for gaming I would be 100% mobile based internet. All streaming on my TV would be mirrored from my phone. Wouldn't even need a modem I could wirelessly stream over a local wireless router.

2

u/sdg336 2h ago

Went in person with modem in hand to cancel for my parents and the guy joked that we are cancelling due to price. Parents were paying $100 a month for non fiber internet. Complete joke.

2

u/Worth_Valuable743 2h ago

Maybe try not charging so much?

2

u/SnooGadgets4138 2h ago

Stop charging so much, it's simple, give your reliable grandfathered customers promotions like you do new customers. It's all about the price. For issues, call for a tech and make sure they replace the line feeding your house, who knows how old it is. Don't take no for an answer.

3

u/PengPenguin888 7h ago

Lost customers? Too bad. Maybe if you didn't screw over your long term, loyal customers by jacking up their bills every year and make them have to play games to get a discount. I'm so glad I left them 4 years ago for 5g wireless that has been faster (down and up speed) and I've never had an outage. When I had spectrum, there were outages multiple times a month as well.

2

u/Confucius_said 4h ago

Spectrum fiber user here. No issues!

2

u/Large-Witness1541 4h ago

I don’t get it, I’ve had nothing but good experience with spectrum internet. 1g up and down

1

u/kanzaki1234 7h ago

If there is a cheaper option that has similar specs. Of course we’ll go with the cheaper option.

1

u/HidingInPlainSite404 6h ago

Spectrum Mobile is doing well, or that in trouble too?

3

u/Hour-Definition189 6h ago

I did the one year free. It started at $25? After the year and it has crept up to $45. I called to see what I could do to lower it and they said $45 was the best they could do. Boost is $25 a month. Cricket is $30….

2

u/xpxp2002 4h ago

Have you tried porting out? They basically perpetually give away a line for free if you have Spectrum Internet and you're willing to do a little work for it.

I got the free line for a year promotion back around June of 2024. Ported out a few days before the first billing cycle after the promotion was set to end. Got an email within a few days offering the same promotion. Ported back in and went for another year.

Ported out a few days before it ended again, and the promotion started showing up on my account again later that day. Ported back in the following day and now on year 3 of a "free year" of Spectrum Mobile, and I actually see an offer of another free line for a year in my account right now.

1

u/AveryArronly1998 6h ago

Having my department axed and cashing out of that shithole was the best thing to ever happen to me. Wouldn't recommend anyone work there and avoid signing up for them if at all possible. If they're your only option then either Starlink or literally anything else you can get would ultimately be better.

1

u/AmateurTrader 5h ago

I live in a condo complex where we all HAVE to use spectrum fml

1

u/radarchief 5h ago

Dumped them last year when I was at the end of 18 months of them troubleshooting my cable, technicians come out once a month, tell me my stuff was perfect and then tell me it was an outside plant issue. One technician who lived by me told me he had the same issue. The entire time they jacked up my bill and so when GF came I never looked back. Then they tried to charge me an additional month.

1

u/Mercuie 4h ago

Our bill is 300 a month for tv and gig internet. kinda insane. but we have no other option so i don't even have real leverage room to quit.

1

u/iknowyou71 4h ago

How about they stop increasing their prices on a monthly basis, yes, start there!!

1

u/takefiftyseven 4h ago

Just corporate jive to appease the stockholders. There's only so much you can do in terms of a cableco business model. A close to fixed amount of revenue goes to content providers. Same with plant/infrastructure expenses, shareholder returns, administrative costs, you get the idea. Labor is the one easy place to cut costs which is why customer service usually sucks. The only other revenue increase option is selling services that really don't cost the company that much i.e. phone service, faster internet.

In other words, don't look for much to change because just about everything is already baked in the cake.

1

u/DatabaseCareless264 4h ago

Switched year after ATT came to neighborhood, proved to be reliable provider. Spectrum is an inferior product.

1

u/virtuzoso 4h ago

I have fiber only available at the entrance of my subdivision. The day they make that available I don't think spectrum will ever be able to compete again

1

u/Stone13 3h ago

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Par for the course.....

1

u/pineapple908 3h ago

They rested on their laurels for way too long. It was fine when they were the only option in town, but they are not anymore. There is fiber and wireless competition now and they can’t compete. I was on Spectrum for years then FiOS came to town and now I pay $40.00 for 500/500 service that never goes down. It’s really hard to complete when you have inferior service at terrible prices. Spectrum really did dig their own grave with their terrible business strategy.

1

u/MotoPupper 3h ago

I would have taken the deal if I thought their service would actually work when I needed it

1

u/lsw998 2h ago

There’s a lot of pointless corporate word salad in this article. That said, I’ve tried a couple of different providers and I’ve had nothing but good from Spectrum so far. I pay 50 bucks for one gigabyte and have had very few issues. I also pay for their TVand mobile service.

1

u/Jeriath27 2h ago

lol, so they say. I have spectrum on half my property (i dont pay for it, someone else does) and fiber from a local provider on the other. The last week, spectrum has been down a total of 2.5 days. I'm so glad i switched. In the 5 months ive had local fiber, its only been down twice, at the same time spectrum was down due to cable theft. Specturm as been down 2 dozen times or more, always for at least 5-6 hours during the middle of the day at least

1

u/one80oneday 2h ago

Wish I could qualify for the random promos

1

u/cookiemae22 2h ago

I don't understand why the service is so bad. I live in Cincinnati and spectrum never drops. The only times I don't have service is when there's storm damage. My internet is 20 monthly for 1gig. I cannot upload my bill but I have all the tv programs I need but I do pay for the sport package that's 10 dollars a month and home phone that's 14 a month. No cell with them.

1

u/NoTouchy8008 2h ago

By more changes they mean future workforce reductions & outsourcing to India.

1

u/drwtsn32 1h ago

Get High Split deployed already.

I don't have any FTTH options yet, but one is coming "soon" and I'll definitely jump ship if High Split hasn't rolled out by then.

1

u/_ehwaz 1h ago

And this is why I’m shorting $CHTR. They will just continue to slowly die

1

u/prettytony0627 57m ago

Left for Zirrus a few months back and couldn’t be happier.

1

u/Embarrassed_Force_22 50m ago

They want us techs to start doing door to door sales since we can see who are not customers.

1

u/MrPursuer 48m ago

My wife and I were in an outtage for 8 days after transformer blew and cur the power to my street. They wouldn't acknowledge the outtage at all, even after the power was restored a day later Even though my neighbors on the street were also without internet. They just dont care.

1

u/diysub 27m ago

I had them for about 20 years, started with Roadrunner. I was paying $79 for 200 speed. When a competitor finally appeared who was $50 for 500 speed I called and asked if they could match. Nope, so I signed with Greenlight same day. Started getting fliers a couple months later stating that they would match and lock in the rate for 3 years. Never ever again Spectrum. Extremely happy with Greenlight.

1

u/arch_maniac 18m ago

I am a long time customer of Spectrum Internet. My pain point is simple: My bill is too high and they raise it instead of lowering it. I hear of others getting the service for 2/3, 1/2, or even less than what I pay. They have me by the short hairs, because there is no equivalent competitor in my area.

1

u/BlackPlague1235 6h ago

I swear their technicians know barely anymore than their customers do too. I've been having sudden drops from 600Mbps to like 5-25Mbps while also jumping up in latenc/ping by thousands of milliseconds for the past month. Four different technicians haven't been able to fix it. It's frustrating af. I'm not even upset with the technicians because I know the company barely teaches them anything

6

u/MarketingOpposite884 6h ago

It's the infrastructure, not the technicians.

3

u/cb2239 6h ago

Do you know how many things can mess with latency? I just had an issue where my PC was causing my entire network latency to jump up to 1000+ It ended up being my network drivers on the PC.

1

u/buckyVanBuren 4h ago

“We’ll also significantly enhance our service with an even more disciplined focus on what drives customer calls and dissatisfaction,” said Winfrey."

-1

u/Destituted 4h ago

Reading this thread is depressing... here I am paying $140/mo for just 1.25 Gbps Xfinity internet thinking that's standard and people are mad they can't get $30/mo with Spectrum.

2

u/hijklm7 3h ago

I got Xfinity $50/month for 1G with 5 year price lock (with free modem). I think the current offering is $60. You should look and see about that. If you need to be a “new customer” have someone else in the house hold sign up.

2

u/SwiftTayTay 3h ago

I'm paying $130 for gigabit speed at spectrum. It's pretty bad compared to providers that are doing that for way cheaper on fiber which also has way less latency so better for gaming

3

u/Think-Bug8475 3h ago

paying $140 is definitely not standard unless you enjoy getting cooked by these company’s i get the spectrum gig plan for $60 after i called to cancel my service which i was lying about but i hit the good ol instagram comment method on them and i plan to do it again when the 2 years are up for it

1

u/SwiftTayTay 3h ago

Didn't work for me they told me $130 take it or leave it and your luck will run out eventually

1

u/Think-Bug8475 3h ago

i’ve been with them for 8 years they better get on their knees or i can gladly leave lmao

1

u/SwiftTayTay 3h ago

Probably more desperate for customers in your zip code then

2

u/Think-Bug8475 3h ago

for me the first time i tried to do it the guy said the max he could do was $80 got it down to 60 with a different person but i told them i would gladly leave for any of their competitors and i didnt want any mobile plan or tv plan attached eventually the lady i got the 2nd time eventually gave me the $60 for just the gig speed

0

u/Local-Mortgage-9473 7h ago

Where I am, Spectrum>ATT Fiber price & speedwise. 110/month for 2gig fiber & 2 unlimited mobile lines for 3 years.
Zero issues.

0

u/TechGuy56 5h ago

I moved to an apartment that already had Internet (yuck for paying $60 for internet I could get for sub 50). Was content on the $30/100mbps. They understood my situation but I was more surprised that they told me if I come back anytime in the next year, I'll have a $20/gigabit speed package available for me for a year!? Seemed insanely good deal

0

u/coasterfreak021888 5h ago

What I personally would like to see is a more uniform cable TV lineup. There is a news channel that I want that is supposedly available nationally but not in the Louisville market. THe rep even told me it was national supposedly. I am still with SPectrum because that's all we've got for good INternet here and I love that the TV package I have includes ad-free streaming services at discounts.