ST. LOUIS (AP)  Charter Communications, the cable operator, said Friday that it had filed a prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

The company, controlled by a Microsoft founder, Paul G. Allen, had planned to file a prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy by April 1.

For years the company has ducked insolvency, but it is now coming up against tight credit and billions of dollars of debt coming due.

Charter had about $21.7 billion in debt at the end of 2008. Holders of $8 billion of the debt agreed to exchange it for almost full ownership in the company, and some old debt was exchanged for new debt. After the bankruptcy, the company will have $13 billion mainly in bank debt, which expires from 2013 to 2016.