Charter monopoly leaves little options

     As students move out of the dorms, and into apartments and houses with their friends, numerous expenses previously included in their dorm fee are now their own responsibility, including television and Internet access.
     Everyone knows this leads to the inevitable question: cable or satellite?
     Many people choose cable due to the added convenience. There’s no dish or equipment to install and maintain, and it’s cheaper to bundle the two services. In Milledgeville, the popular choice for cable and Internet is Charter Digital Cable.
It’s also the only choice. In the most recent Yellow Book for the Milledgeville area, it’s the only cable company listed. And some students believe that the absence of competition has led to inadequate service. It’s one of the basic laws of economics: without competition, the consumers suffer.
     “In the past month, they’ve told me that my Internet will be down for maintenance seven times,” said senior Richard Plunkett. “I’ve needed to work on school and can’t use the Internet. Even when it’s supposed to be working, it seems like it’s running slower than it should be or it needs to be reset. It gets on my nerves.”
     Junior Zack Wilkinson shares some of the same problems as Plunkett.
     “When we got everything hooked up, it said that the Internet speed would be five megabytes per second. We found out that it meant five megabytes per second is the top speed, which is completely different from what we were told. When there are a lot of people in the area using the Internet, our connection gets slow. And college students use the Internet all the time, which means our connection is usually slower than it should be.”
Wilkinson’s problems have also breached into other areas of Charter’s service.
     “We also got HD television,” Wilkinson said. “The quality is pretty good, but we only get ten HD networks. I know there are a lot more, but Charter doesn’t carry them in Milledgeville. It’s frustrating. I’ve used Comcast in the past, and I never had any problems with it. My Internet was consistently fast, and I was impressed with what they offered. Charter hasn’t impressed me at all. For the amount of money that we pay, the service doesn’t add up.”
     Furthermore, the lack of competing companies has left Wilkinson with nowhere to turn.
     “Back home, if you weren’t happy with the cable company, you could change providers,” he added. “Here, you don’t have that option, unless you want to switch to dish.”
     For many students moving out of university housing, cable is the only option. Dish installation can be a hassle, and many apartment buildings cannot accommodate the necessary equipment for satellite due to a lack of space.
     “If there were more cable companies in Milledgeville, the service would be better,” Plunkett said. “Without the competition, it seems like Charter cares less about its customers because they know that they’re the only cable company in the area.”
     As more high school graduates attend GCSU and ultimately live in Milledgeville, the market will continue to expand.   Perhaps then another cable company will enter the picture and give Charter the competition that many are looking for.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 18 2008. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry