I can only speak for my area. Google Fiber is a joke and should be used by no one, AT&T doesn't service anywhere within many hundreds of miles from me and is beyond irrelevant and the only Ting I know of is the Sprint MVNO. We have two small fiber start ups in my general area of Upstate NY, Empire Access and Greenlight. Neither of which Charter tried to block. One of the areas Empire Access services is town a regional headend is located in, a community where cable has had a heavy presence in since the late 80s when it was Tri-County Cablevision.
For cable set top boxes, just about all Charter areas should have access to at least the 101/201 WorldBoxes. Most areas should have access to the 110/210 Worldbox 2.0s, except for L-BHN areas. In L-TWC and L-BHN areas you still have a shot at getting a 6 tuner DVR. For extra below the line fees, look no further then everyone's fiber hero, Verizon. The bills posted online from Verizon Fios triple play subscribers have more below the line fees then any other provider that I have ever seen. Charter has zero below the line fees on internet, zero below the line fees on phone and only the broadcast TV, mandated franchise fee and 6 cent FCC fee for video. People will complain about paying $7 - $10 per month in STB rental fees, but have no problem paying $30+ per month financing for the latest stupidphone from their cellular provider.
For customer service, my experience has been nothing short of outstanding. Including a service repair within hours of a driving ban being lifted after getting 5 - 6' of snow in a four day period.
The NY thing was a joke and a ploy during an election year, another corrupt move by the second most corrupt state in the US. Last year more people left NY state then any other state, we all know the state is corrupt, and the smart ones are leaving.
Having problems that negatively impact service is terrible and frustrating, no doubt about that. If your livelihood is dependent on having reliable internet access then you should have business class service. At work I have three coax accounts with Charter and one with Comcast. We've only had these accounts for about 4 years now when we opened up additional offices around the country. Each office has had internet problems requiring a tech be dispatched at least once and all were solved same day or next day at the latest. The only repeat offender was at our Dallas facility there was an ongoing problem that was happening for over 6 months before someone let me know. Called it in at 9AM, and a tech was there at 3PM. After hours of troubleshooting the problem was discovered, and line techs were dispatched the next day. Everything has been rock solid since. My livelihood is not totally dependent on having internet, but I need to be as connected as possible for work in case of being stuck at home due to weather or taking care of stuff off hours, so that's why I have HughesNet as well.
On a side note, two of the four locations at work were brand new builds and required build outs and plant extensions from Comcast and Time Warner. While they both went relatively smoothly, my dealings with Comcast Business were very enjoyable. I got frequent status updates from the account rep and I was able to work with them to expedite the build out when upper management at my job decided to move up the target date for the office grand opening by a month. 5 stars all the way around from me.
