This week, Charter Communications announced an upgrading to the starting speeds of its Spectrum internet service in 37 more US cities. Going forward, the base Spectrum Internet plan will feature speeds of up to 200 Mbps. That’ll be double the previous cap of 100 Mbps. Additionally, Charter will continue to offer the Internet Ultra plan with speeds of up to 400 Mbps and the Internet Gig plan, which offers speeds of up to 1 Gbps.
Spectrum Internet speeds up in 37 cities
Charter says that the rollout began on Tuesday, March 8, and will impact more than 5 million homes. Here are some of the communities that will see the faster speeds:
- Bakersfield, California
- Bangor, Maine
- Binghamton, New York
- Dayton, Ohio
- Green Bay-Appleton, Wisconsin
- Greenville, N.C.
- Harlingen, Texas
- Portland, Maine
- Toledo, Ohio
- Utica, New York
- Youngstown, Ohio
- Yuma, Arizona
- El Centro, California
Charter says the faster speeds are already available to new Spectrum Internet subscribers in the additional markets. In the coming weeks, Charter will also automatically increase speeds for current residential customers with Spectrum Internet packages.
Where I’m located, the base Internet plan costs $49.99 a month for the first twelve months. The Internet Ultra plan costs $69.99 a month, and the Internet Gig plan comes in at $89.99 a month. It’s worth noting that these prices do go up after the first year. I am currently paying $74.99 a month for the base Spectrum Internet plan.
“Beginning today, we are doubling starting speeds for millions of customers, providing even more speed for streaming, remote work, and staying connected with family and friends — with no modem fees, data caps or contracts,” said Carl Leuschner, Senior Vice President, Internet & Voice Products at Charter. “We look forward to completing the launch of 200 Mbps starting speeds across our entire service area later this year.”
Internet speed test
It’s totally possible that you have no idea how much of an upgrade 200 Mbps would be for your internet. Thankfully, it is astoundingly easy to find out exactly just how fast an internet connection really is. If you search the phrase “speed test” on Google, you can actually run a test with a widget that appears right on the search page.
There are a number of other speed test tools online, in case you want a second opinion. The most popular are Ookla’s Speedtest and Netflix’s Fast.com. As a Spectrum subscriber in New York City myself, I’m getting speeds of right around 200 Mbps.
