Charter to invest $25bn on broadband infrastructure, says Trump
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Charter to invest $25bn on broadband infrastructure, says Trump

President Trump and Tom Rutledge, Charter CEO, have announced that Charter Communications is to invest $25 billion on broadband infrastructure and technology over the next four years.

“Five years ago Charter Communications was a struggling company that had slowly emerged from bankruptcy. Today, thanks to hard work and unbelievable leadership, truly great leadership, it’s the fastest-growing television, internet, and voice company in the nation. I would say that's a good job.  Not bad,” said Trump in the joint statement at the White House on Friday, adding that he was “very excited about the announcement”.

“Today I am thrilled to announce that Charter Communications has just committed to investing $25 billion -- with a B, $25 billion -- you're sure that's right, right?  (Laughter.)  With a B, right -- $25 billion here in the United States, and has committed further to hiring 20,000 American workers over the next four years.”



Charter emphasised it commitment to invest not only in America’s infrastructure but job creation. “Charter has been insourcing jobs for the last five years, and as a result of that, our company has performed tremendously,” said Rutledge. 

Charter is committed to moving all of the former Time Warner Cable customer service calls from offshore to the US, consistent with its approach at Charter, and will create new jobs to handle those calls.

Rutledge added: “We’re going to insource all the calls that Time Warner Cable outsourced – 50% of their calls were leaving the country. So we’re going to bring all that back, and create 20,000 new jobs.  And we’re very excited about that.”

A new call centre will also be opened in McAllen, Texas. Kip Mayo, who manages Charter’s call centres, also spoke at the press conference: “It gives us the capacity to be able to create over 600 good-paying jobs.  That allows us to insource work that is currently performed through third parties.”

“The McAllen centre will be our first fully bilingual call centre. It will allow customers who prefer to communicate with us in Spanish to do so, and we will provide them with service and technical support.”

The call centre is expected to open next month, and over 100 employees have already been hired and are set to be trained.

Charter became the second-biggest cable group in the US after completing its three-way merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks last year.


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