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Time Warner Cable offered $14.99 internet access to anyone. Charter isn’t.
Charter Communications can stop accepting new customers in New York State for Time Warner Cable’s legacy “Everyday Low Price” internet service, offering basic internet service for $14.99 a month without a contract or income qualification.
Under the terms of the New York Public Service Commission’s Merger Order, Spectrum was required to continue offering Time Warner Cable’s affordable internet service for at least two years after the close of the merger to any customer in the state that wanted it. New York was the only state in the country that put meaningful deal conditions on the Charter-Time Warner Cable-Bright House merger, requiring the country’s second largest cable operator to share pro-consumer benefits with its customers in the state.
The second anniversary of the merger occurred on May 18, 2018, which means Spectrum is no longer required to enroll new customers in the Everyday Low Price (ELP) plan. Existing ELP customers can keep the plan until at least May 17, 2019, as long as they do not make changes to their account that would result in their enrollment being canceled. Once canceled, customers cannot get the legacy plan back. At about the same time next year, Charter can also compel its New York customers to abandon existing Time Warner Cable plan(s), in favor of Spectrum plans and pricing, should the company wish to do so.
The benefit to keeping ELP around is that it is effectively a DSL killer. In most markets, the speeds run at 2.5Mbps/1Mbps or a little faster. That effectively puts it in reach of the vast majority of DSL Connections the Telco will sell, and for less. Also encourages folks to get that juicy Triple Play bundle on that note.
I would imagine that the folks buying such a tier are not necessarily hitting the plan very hard in terms of data volume. So beyond support calls, I can’t imagine it being unprofitable.
Hi, anybody know if they’ve actually stopped accepting customers for this? The headline says they’ve “sunset[ted]” the tier, but the article makes it clear that the news is actually that they’re no longer required to do so. I wish I’d switched back in May. I just saw the $1 increase, only what, eight months? after the last increase…I don’t use the speed I’ve got, and I own my DOCSIS 2 modem, so I only get 36 Mbps or whatever the top speed of those are. Sure, it’s only a buck, but where is this headed? Another buck in a few… Read more »
I do not know if they’ve stopped accepting new customers. I’ve been on ELP almost since its inception. I still have it. I own my own modem. This is in a second home. I can stream Netflix, and it allowed me to install WiFi thermostats to control the heating system. I am sure you won’t get an answer by calling. Visit your local store and tell them you want it. With all the mud slinging between the state and Spectrum, you might find out that they still offer it to new subs. I will find out by summer if I… Read more »
For what it’s worth, ELP is still listed on their retail rate card. It requires the subscriber to own their own equipment or rent a modem from Spectrum.
It’s on the rate card, but they are unwilling to add new customers to the plan, and deny all existence of it.
They just raised the price of ELP to $24.99. That isn’t so low priced any more.
Where do you see that? It still says $14.99 on the Syracuse metro rate card. Anyway, I did deduce that calling would be a waste of time since ELP was always special to NY, and because I’ve read about how those guys have been trained to wear you down. But, I never got around to going to a store, because like five different random things all broke at once, one of which was my phone. Needless to say, I needed something off my plate and this was first to go. It’s all very irritating. For all the hand waving that… Read more »