Billions in debt, disappointing quarterly results, habitual refinancing of debt, ridiculous charges, and technical support staff you cannot understand are a few attributes Charter perpetually drags around like luggage.

There is one attribute Charter consistently does correct.  That is broadband.  Charter is upping the speed to their broadband service.  The speeds are extremely fast and watching movie downloads is no problem.

If Charter can address all the other problems, then the service may actually stick.

In a rare effort Fedzilla (federal government) has released a service that is beneficial.  It is an accurate broadband speed test for your Internet connection.  The service is offered, but not endorsed (per website legal), for demographic measurement of the population.

The FCC is acquiring a survey of Internet broadband speeds throughout the country.  The FCC has made a gargantuan proposal for broadband deployment throughout the United States.  The gathered information is theoretically for inventorying the current national state of broadband.  The FCC barely mentions the proposal is supported via a new tax they are pursuing.

Over the past six weeks our broadband connectivity was sluggish and it almost took an act of Congress to get our provider to look into it.  Somehow I don’t think Fedzilla is capable of fixing is the ISP’s reliability.  This is another issue for another day.

During our slug speed we checked a number of broadband speed tests and the winner is the FCC.  Other contenders included SpeakEasy, SpeedTest, Verizon, and Charter.  The attributes of the contenders were so inaccurate they don’t come close.  Speedtest.net is a joke as it comes down to the speed of the server.  We tested the speed with over five servers and in each case the speeds varied from 6 mbps to 16 mbps.  Seems a bit ironic considering the domain name is “speedtest.net.”

The other contenders tests were so outdated they either didn’t display speeds past 10 mbps or were not programmed to go beyond a speed that was way lower than our ceiling speed of 25 down and three up.

In the end the FCC site rocks for a real-world measurement of your Internet connection.  Get on your computer and measure your speed.  It will provide you the ammunition necessary to start on the repair of your broadband connection.

Despite the fact Charter Communications only knows how to stay in debt, it theoretically has come out of bankruptcy. The company has reduced it’s total debt by 40% which converts to $8 billion leaving $13 billion owed to creditors.

The company has carried debt for over a decade, robbing the shareholders and bondholders, yet emerges as a better company that will continue in debt. This is truly a head scratcher.

Every company is offered the same legal opportunities to restructure and to seek legal protection. However, my beef has always been with the CEO, Paul Allen. He is the largest shareholder and he sought bankruptcy in February 2009 to reduce the company’s debt by $8 billion and received exactly what he wanted. Do you see something wrong here?

If Paul Allen has run the company for a decade in debt, successfully reduces the debt, and comes out of bankruptcy, then he earns his place as CEO. Obviously, it is difficult to do much since he is the largest shareholder.

Paul, do your shareholders a favor, quit.

Finally, Charter Communications, St. Louis, Missouri, is rumored to file for bankruptcy soon.  It is way past the 11th hour.  This company may finally see the light at the end of the tunnel which is dark for the stock holders.

For months we have discussed this issue.  Quite honestly it is surprising the issue is still discussed between us and the analysts in the business world.  Bankruptcy is the smartest things the guys running the shop over there could do.  Reuters is reporting a bankruptcy is around the corner.  Charter, of course, is not publicly saying a word.

Now the next subject with this issue is where the service will go after the filing.  The company still lives in a dream world.  Last week Charter reported a new service of super high speed Internet for $125 per month.  The speed is 60 mbps down link.  I almost coughed and gagged on that one.  This is a perfect example they are toast.   Talk about timing.  Introduce an expensive service in the middle of the second worse recession this country is experiencing.

Maybe it is just me.  If my Internet goes out due to this subject you can expect to see a momentary outage of entries into this blog. 

The eighth mystery of the world is puzzling.  Charter Communications is in the red and yet continues to operate.  The company is trading at .08 a share, is borderline of  delisting from NasDaq, and now receives a grade that makes a flunking student look like a graduate with honors.

The Forrester Group has rated Charter so low on a list of popularity even the unpopular are embarrassed being next to the company.  Forrester compiled a report, “The Customer Experience Index, 2008,” per the research of 5,000 consumers.  Charter Communications was among one of a select few that experienced the largest decline.

Charter is building a comprehensive network of offerings, but the debt loads are too much and there is no recovery for the company.  Bankruptcy is not if but when.  There is no fence to sit on with this situation.  Just get off and land on the side of a super tanker.  No repair is going to fix this Saint Louis based company.