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CenterFuse Broadband Feasibility Report • 26%have speeds under 50 Mbps • 55% have speeds under 100 Mbps • 83% have speeds under 125 Mbps • 17% of customers have speeds over 125 Mbps We were surprised to see so many customers with slow download speeds. Charter publicly says that they have upgraded all of their networks to DOCSIS 3.1. Charter advertises nationwide that it is selling broadband speeds "up to" 100 Mbps. The speed tests showed a that 55% of customers are getting speeds under 100 Mbps—a much higher percentage than what we expected to see. As this paper was being written In December 2020, Charter announced that new customers in some markets will be getting 200 Mbps as the basic broadband download speed, increased from 100 Mbps. During the first quarter the company also will be increasing speeds for existing customers in seventeen markets including Palm Springs, CA; Orlando, FL; Tampa, FL; Savannah, GA; Lexington, KY; Rochester, MN; Columbia, MO; Springfield, MO; Albany, NY; Buffalo,NY; Elmira,NY; Rochester, NY; Syracuse, NY; Chattanooga, TN; Tri-Cities, TN; Beaumont, TX, and Cheyenne, WY. Like all of the big cable companies, Charter periodically increases speeds across the board. The company raised speeds in 2014 from 30 Mbps to 60 Mbps. In 2017 the company increased speeds to 100 Mbps download. Charter will likely eventually increase speeds in other markets like Ellensburg, subject to technical capability. Speeds in any given market can be limited by local factors such as the overall bandwidth of the network,the configuration of electronics, and the age and quality of the coaxial plant. Like all cable • companies, Charter sells bandwidth that is 'up to' the advertised speeds and there will be customers in the upgraded markets that will see faster broadband, but who may never hit 200 Mbps. We can make the following observations about the download speed tests: • All of the customers reporting speed tests between 101 and 125 Mbps said they were subscribing to a 100 Mbps broadband package, meaning every one of these customers was getting faster speeds than their subscription. Most other customers were not receiving the speeds they subscribed to. This is easy to explain. I refer you to the longer description of Charter's technology in Section II.B. That discussion describes the technology that defines the overall broadband capability of a cable company network. Across the country, Charter has upgraded each local network to the fastest speed that could comfortably be achieved by the basic subscriber. The achieved basic speeds across the country are between 100 Mbps and 200 Mbps. I happen to also live in a Charter market, and in Asheville North Carolina, Charter has been able to achieve a basic speed of around 135 Mbps. There are markets where the basic achieved speed is even faster. The network capacity limitations in Ellensburg seem to be producing an average speed for the 100 Mbps product of around 115 Mbps. • We found evidence that Charter has grandfathered some broadband customers. In the industry, the term grandfathered refers to allowing customers to keep older broadband products and prices. There were customers taking the speed tests that claimed they were buying broadband products with speeds of 50Mbps and 60 Mbps—and they were getting slower speeds that correspond to Page 29