Due to COVID-19, Charter cranks up self-installs in Q1

In the first quarter, Charter added a total of 580,000 residential and small- and medium-sized business (SMB) internet customers. As of March 31, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said Charter added approximately 120,000 customers, which also included video, voice and mobile services, through the Keeping America Connected program, "with many more installed in April." Charter's total internet subscribers increased by 6% to 25.5 million while net additions of internet customers was up by 42% in the quarter. Across video, internet and mobile, Charter's residential and business customer base increased by 4.5% to a total of 29.7 million. Residential revenue grew by 4.2% while SMB revenue grew by 5.4%. Rutledge said that going forward, the SMB sector would face some hardships as smaller businesses struggle to re-open. On the other hand, the enterprise sector is more likely to remain stable because large enterprises are reluctant to change service providers. Rutledge credited his company's self-installation program, as well as marketing campaign around self-installs, for weathering the COVID-19 related storm of new subscribers in the first quarter.