Charter launches cheaper internet plans to boost broadband customer retention

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(Reuters) – Telecoms firm Charter Communications-owned Spectrum on Monday rolled out cheaper internet plans that would be bundled with its mobile and cable TV services, amid tough competition from Comcast and AT&T’s DirecTV.

The move comes at a time when people are dumping cable TV bundles provided by the likes of Charter for streaming services, while wireless majors including AT&T and Verizon are attracting broadband customers.

Charter, which has benefited from a push into less tapped rural areas, will from Tuesday offer the Spectrum One plan with internet speeds of 500 megabytes per second for $30/month when bundled with two mobile lines or cable TV.

A higher plan, with a speed of 1 gigabytes per second called the Spectrum Gig, will be rolled out at a starting price of $40/month.

The company also offered an increase in internet speed at no additional cost for customers using two of its existing broadband plans. These announcements are part of a new brand platform called ‘Life Platform’, which will be rolled out in 41 states this week.

Charter is also pledging to give credits to customers in case of an outage in its services.

In July, the company paid a $15 million penalty in connection with three unplanned network outages and hundreds of scheduled maintenance-related network outages which took place last year.

(Reporting by Rishi Kant in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)