Charter Lite Vs. Dial-up

Dial-up is generally the slowest type of Internet connection available, with speeds slower than that of cable, DSL, wireless and satellite connections. Some dial-up providers do offer faster or "turbo" plans, but even those will not come close to matching the speed of cable Internet. With dial-up, the computer uses a standard 56 Kbps modem to transmit data through standard telephone lines, with 56 Kbps being the maximum transmission speed. Once line noise and other factors are considered, true download speeds typically range between 48 and 53 Kbps.

Charter's high-speed Internet plans begin with the Lite package, which is the slowest of the five plans the company offers. Charter advertises download speeds of up to 1 Mbps for Charter Lite, and upload speeds of up to 128 Kbps. That makes Charter Lite twice as fast as dial-up for uploading data, and nearly 18 times as fast for downloading.

After Lite, the other Charter plans are, in order from slowest to fastest, Express, Plus, Max and Ultra 60. The monthly fee of the plan increases with each package, with all but Lite offering an introductory rate for the first 12 months when bundled with cable TV service. The difference in speeds between Lite and the others is somewhat substantial, with the other plans promising up to 12, 18, 25 and 60 Mbps, respectively.

As Charter Lite offers one of the slower speeds available with cable Internet, it is suggested for those who only practice basic online tasks and usage, such as email and simple Web-browsing. For other activities requiring a good deal more bandwidth to operate efficiently, including viewing streaming video and downloading video and audio files, a higher connection speed and service is recommended.