Charter Watcher

Charter lies about a lot more than just privacy

A couple of months ago I saw a commercial for Charter Communications which featured a man in a suit sitting at a computer talking about fiber optics. He explained that Verizon was getting a lot of publicity of their FIOS service, but maintained that Charter had been using fiber optics for years, insinuating that the services were equal in terms of speed and reliability. Then he pretended to type. Not only can Charter not hire competent executives or managers, but they can’t even get an actor to type convincingly on cue.

It bothered me even then that Charter would lie so boldly. Of course they use fiber optics in their network, as does virtually every company with more than a half dozen servers. Heck, my third bedroom has some fiber in play for my personal servers, and I’ve been using fiber to connect my music hardware for almost a decade. Does that put my technology on par with Charter’s? With Verizon’s? Since I use fiber too, can I now go on television and promise to deliver the exact same thing that these companies do?

Of course the answer is no, but that doesn’t stop Charter from comparing their decades-old cable technology to Verizon’s cutting-edge FIOS. It’s so blatant that even Forbes did a piece on it.

From the article:

Mike Weaver in Watauga, Texas, saw an ad from Charter Communications Inc. that talked about “advanced fiber optics,” and was disappointed when he realized that the cable company isn’t drawing fiber to the home. He wants the faster Internet speeds provided by FiOS, he said.

Charter spokeswoman Anita Lamont said the intent behind the current ads, which say the company has been using fiber for the last 10 years, “is to reassure current Charter customers that they too have fiber optic technology bringing their homes to life.”

Mike saw the same commercial I saw. In it Charter obviously compares their fiber optic network to Verizon’s, which indicates that Charter too offers fiber to the doorstep. According to Anita Lamont, this commercial is intended to do just that. Charter knows that the vast majority of customers won’t know that the fiber optic being touted in their commercials only refers to that in use in their datacenters. Charter knows that the majority of their customers won’t call them on their BS when they see a plain old coaxial cable strung across their backyard. Charter thinks that they can lie with impunity, and that no one will do anything about it. That is how much they think of you and I as customers.

So why is it surprising when they employ the same techniques in dealing with privacy? Charter’s standard procedure is to lie, bend the truth, and spread misinformation. We all know that they don’t have the same fiber optic network as Verizon, and we all know that they won’t protect our privacy.

But that isn’t going to stop them from lying through their teeth about it. There’s money to be made, and the truth is the only thing left standing in the way. Somebody call Ted Schremp. There’s BS that needs to be spread.