Charter is moving to all-digital TV in August

A large cable TV provider that serves the Upper Peninsula has a change in store for customers in a few weeks.

Charter Communications is switching to all–digital TV signals in the greater Marquette area on Tuesday, August 5th. Starting that day, plugging the wire directly into the back of a TV will no longer work. All Charter TV customers will need to have a digital box.

“Customers are already coming into the Negaunee office, and they can also call 888-GET-CHARTER or go (online) to charter.com/digitalnow to arrange to have the equipment shipped to their home (free of charge),” Charter region communications director Bill Morand said.

The first box per household will be free for 12 months. Additional boxes will be $6.99 per month. Charter says no other services or packages are changing in price as a result of the switch, and if you don’t have an HDTV, you don’t have to buy one.

“We have standard definition boxes available for customers without HD sets,” Morand said. “I should mention that as a result of this cutover, we’ll be moving to over 200 HD offerings, which is a significant improvement.”

The same all-digital TV switch is happening in the Houghton area on August 12th. The Ironwood and Iron Mountain areas will be switched on the 19th. The Escanaba area will also make the switch on the 26th.

Public, educational and government access channels in the Marquette area are also changing numbers in Charter’s lineup as a result of the switch.

  • The court channel will go from channel 8 to channel 188.
  • The city of Ishpeming’s channel will move from channel 19 to channel 189.
  • Northern Michigan University’s channel is moving from channel 20 to channel 190.
  • The city of Marquette’s access channel will move from channel 21 to channel 191.