After two and a half years of using AT&T U-Verse, I’ve switched back to Charter for my home services. AT&T nearly doubled in cost after the 2-year intro pricing, and they were inflexible when I called them to see what could be done to mitigate that. That wasn’t the reason I left, however; it was the Internet speed. I’ve always had problems with U-Verse Internet, never getting anywhere near the 18mbps I was paying for. Speeds averaged around 5-6mbps, and sometimes would get into the 10-12mbps range, but not very often. It became very frustrating to try and stream from a webcam or use FaceTime. Charter has changed a lot since I left them, and they promised 60mbps minimum speed. Couple that with essentially the same TV lineup and home phone service for $100 LESS per month than what I could get AT&T down to, and it’s pretty much a no-brainer.

Although their service technician was a little “rusty” in doing installations, everything was up and running inside of 90 minutes. I was blown away by my new Internet speed, and in fact I haven’t had a speed test come in under 60 Mbps! What does that mean?

• YouTube plays at a wonderful 1080p with no buffering. Last Week Tonight, Smarter Every Day, Vintage Space and The Brain Scoop as they were meant to be seen!
• iCloud is super-fast (my upload speeds are about 4x that of U-Verse). When I take a picture on my iPhone or a screenshot from an iPad, it appears in my Macbook’s Photos app almost immediately. I used to have to wait for the better part of an hour sometimes for this to work on my old network.
• FaceTime is high-res and solid.
• Streaming music from Apple Music doesn’t affect my other Internet work.

I haven’t tried Netflix yet, but I’m guessing it’ll be the same type of experience. Downloads from the App Store across all devices has been stellar.

What don’t I like about Charter? I was surprised to see that the old, low-resolution menu system was still there on the DVR box. I really do like U-Verse’s interface, and their mobile app is top-notch. Charter’s TV picture is excellent, but going back to the old box was a little disappointing; I thought for sure they’d have an updated and more modern system by now.

The mobile app (Spectrum TV) is a good app. At first, it appeared to be everything the U-Verse app was: streaming live TV, changing channel on the TV box, and setting the DVR. Unfortunately, I can only stream on the app; apparently, my model of TV box isn’t controllable by the app. I’ll certainly be asking about that when I get a chance to contact Charter.

Overall, I’m very happy with the switch. As a one-person, one-TV household who’s primary need is fast and steady Internet access, Charter seems to be a better solution — that just happens to be less expensive, to boot.