Cable goes digital, forcing some customers to scramble

Charter Communications has moved to an all-digital network, requiring all its customers to install digital set-top boxes. 

Over the past month, Charter has tried to drill the transfer to digital into customer’s heads, according to Brian Anderson, director of regional communications. 

“There have been messages included in their billing statements, automated phone messages as well as personalized calls,” said Anderson. “We’ve done everything we could.”

These calls and messages were intended to continually remind customers to attach the digital box to any television they wish to have cable. Otherwise, their cable services will be shut off. 

That is exactly what happened Tuesday morning. Cable customers in the Flathead Valley who had not switched over to the new system woke up to find themselves without cable services. 

“Any TV that doesn’t have a box will not have service,” Anderson said. “Customers need to take action to get a box. If they’re still without service, they can come down to our store or call a customer service agent to get it set up.” 

Any customer who has a digital video recorder or other Charter-installed receiver connected to a television will already receive cable. However, every television must have its own digital box. These can be acquired at the local Charter office.

The Kalispell Charter office on First Avenue East was packed on Tuesday. Many people had waited until the last minute or hadn’t seen the notices and were filing into the downtown office to get their digital boxes. 

“I was really hoping I would be the only one who waited until the last minute,” said Lori Wells of Kalispell. Wells groaned as she walked into the office and saw a line four people long already. Five more customers walked in behind her, and the line began to go out the front door. 

Wells owns a rental home and said she had to get boxes for the bedroom and living room. She said she forgot until that morning when her renters complained about a lack of cable. 

Andrea Bell, a Kalispell Charter customer, was in the office to pay her bill but still had to stand in the long line of people waiting for digital boxes. 

“I picked the wrong day to come in here, apparently,” she said. 

Bell installed a digital box on her bedroom television a few weeks ago, when coworkers and employers reminded her. 

“It was really easy to install,” Bell said. “You call a phone number and an automated service walks you through the setup.” 

Bell said her cable plan gave her access to the digital box for a year free of charge, but she will have to begin paying the $6.99 monthly rental fee after that. 

According to Anderson, the Kalispell office added several staff members to accommodate the rush. 

Normally, two to four employees are in the office to assist customers, but on Tuesday, a makeshift desk was set up in the middle of the office to allow two more employees to assist customers. 

Transferring to an all-digital network means removing any analog signals from the system, which frees up bandwidth. Once the bandwidth is freed up, Charter will add 200 additional high-definition channels and increase Internet speeds from 30 to 60 megabits per second. These channels will be grouped by genre, with sports channels or news channels in similar areas in the listing.

“We want to stress that we’re not removing channels,” said Anderson. “Just the analog signals that take up a lot of space.” 

However, to see these new channels in high definition, customers will need to have high-definition televisions. 

According to Anderson, any television — regardless of type — that received cable before will be able to continue to get cable signals after being connected to the digital box. 

Depending on the type of package customers have, they could receive digital boxes free for up to five years. However, some packages may not include the boxes, which will cost $6.99 per month to rent from Charter. 

“These boxes cost us a couple hundred dollars a piece,” Anderson said. “We won’t be able to break even for quite some time, probably a couple years.” 

This switch has been slowly making its way across the country. The transition to all-digital has already happened in parts of Texas, Oregon, California, Washington, Nevada, Illinois, Missouri, South Carolina, Michigan and Massachusetts. The company plans to complete the upgrade in all 29 states in which it operates by the end of the year and in Montana by mid-November. 

While the process of transferring to digital is fairly standard for residential televisions, the process becomes a bit more complicated for “bulk customers” or those with many televisions on the premises. 

“We have some solutions for our bulk customers,” Anderson said. “And we try to contact them well in advance to work with them to create a tailored approach for each business.” 

One such customer is Larry Fowler, owner and operator of Columbia Falls RV Park. Fowler said his business was first contacted Aug. 18. Fowler said that he was concerned because he would have to rent over 71 digital boxes for his park — one for each RV site. 

“It’s difficult to put [the boxes] on,” said Fowler. “Some of the TVs in RVs are built into the wall, and you can’t get in behind them to install the box.” 

Another issue with the park is the nature of his business, Fowler said. Some customers arrive late at night or leave early in the morning. Fowler then would have to either be constantly available to give the boxes to customers and assist with installation or create a drop box for customers to pick up and leave the digital boxes. He fears some customers would leave the park with the boxes still in their RV, sticking Columbia Falls RV Park with the bill to replace the box. 

According to Fowler, the RV park has been attempting to contact Charter over the past month to find a solution, but the two companies have been unable to reach an agreement. 

One solution proposed by Charter is a Quam system, a single digital box that spreads over the whole RV park, working the same way that WiFi does for Internet. However, Fowler said prices ranged from $5,000 to $13,000 for the system. 

As of Tuesday, the RV park had its cable services shut off. 

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Fowler. “We can’t go without cable, but that kind of fee for installation is ridiculous.” 

Charter Communications is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States.

For more information on the all-digital transition, visit www.charter.com/digitalnow or call 1-888-438-2427. 

Reporter Brianna Loper may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at bloper@dailyinterlake.com.