Conn. cable company offers guaranteed ‘price for life’

Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei during a December panel in New York City sponsored by the Paley Center for Media. Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei during a December panel in New York City sponsored by the Paley Center for Media. Photo: Contributed Image Photo: Contributed Image Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Conn. cable company offers guaranteed ‘price for life’ 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

It is the recurring frustration for cable customers — the annual rate hike — that has many wondering each year whether to seek a split and find a new provider.

One major Connecticut carrier wants your business for life, for $65 a month and nothing more — unless you factor in extra fees for broadcast TV, sports stations and equipment that have seen a succession of bumps the past several years.

Altice USA has quietly begun marketing a “Price for Life package” with a rate set in stone for the duration a residential customer chooses to stay with the company, at $65 a month.

Altice’s Connecticut territories include coastal Fairfield County and a handful of towns just inland; and Torrington and a cluster of Litchfield County towns. The company is the fourth-largest traditional cable carrier in the nation after Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox, also trailing Verizon Communications and its FiOS TV service carried on fiber optic cable.

Altice USA is now in the process of rolling out its own fiber optic service in Connecticut. Spokeswoman Janet Meahan told Hearst Connecticut Media the offer will apply to both Altice Fiber Gigabit and Optimum’s coaxial cable services.

“Customers can lock into their introductory pricing, meaning they won’t roll off to higher pricing after a certain period of time, like one would with a one- or two-year promotion,” Meahan said. “Price for Life is a compelling new promotion for consumers looking for TV, phone and internet services.”

Altice USA’s Price for Life includes broadband Internet, Optimum Core TV and access to streaming video services, as well as the Altice One system that acts as a wireless hub in the home with password protection, beaming as well a public signal that other Optimum subscribers can tap for internet service.

Those devices are a key element of an Altice Mobile service the New York-based company is expected to roll out generally in the next few weeks, with Altice having designed a mobile system that can funnel calls through Sprint’s network of cell transmitters as well as through its extensive network of Optimum WiFi hubs in homes and businesses throughout the New York City region and other territories nationally.

Philadelphia-based Comcast and Stamford-based Charter have generated early traction with mobile services they offer, with Cox having experimented with its own service years ago but discontinuing it.

For households considering the promotion, the key question is how Altice will treat fees outside the scope of the base offer. In May, Altice pushed through another round of rate inflation, tacking $1 more to the monthly rate for its set-top box, as well as to the surcharges for its regional sports networks for customers of its Optimum Core package and broadcast TV for Optimum Basic accounts.

Customers on the basic tier of Optimum TV also absorbed varying increases, to $25 a month from prior rates as low as $14.

Earlier this year, state Rep. Michelle Cook, D-Torrington, floated the idea of reintroducing regulation of cable TV rates, without making public any draft bill for Connecticut General Assembly lawmakers to consider.

Due to a reporting error, an initial version incorrectly stated “Altice Price for Life” as costing $10 more than the company’s current promotional rate. The Altice One-enabled package was priced previously at $65, with an Optimum TV and Internet package that does not use Altice One carrying a $55-a-month promotional rate.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman