Charter Communications Operating LLC

Charter Communications Operating LLC, doing business as Charter Media, a division of parent Charter Communications Holdings LLC, provides commercial cable television, high-speed internet, fiber optic connectivity, and voice telecommunications services to federal agencies as a prime contractor (94% of recent awards) across full-and-open competition with no set-aside designations. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, Charter operates as a for-profit corporation delivering infrastructure-dependent telecommunications services primarily through firm fixed-price purchase orders and blanket purchase agreements.

The vendor's customer base concentrates heavily in defense and civilian law enforcement. The top five funding agencies by award count account for 31% of recent awards, with the Drug Enforcement Administration leading at 98 awards ($783 thousand combined potential value), followed by Army Pacific Command (24 awards, $683 thousand), Army Medical Command (22 awards, $1.9 million), Navy Information Warfare Systems Command (20 awards), and Army Installation Management Command Pacific Region (19 awards, $2.3 million). By dollar value, Army Installation Management Command Southeast Region anchors the portfolio with 8 awards totaling $6.4 million in combined potential value, followed by Army Installation Management Command Pacific Region ($2.3 million across 19 awards). DEA's high award count masks lower per-award values—recurring small purchases for cable and spectrum services at district offices nationwide. Army and Air Force installations represent the largest dollar concentration, particularly at Fort Knox, Fort Moore, Fort Drum, Camp Lejeune, Edwards Air Force Base, and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Charter holds 57 task orders under Army BPA W912CN21A0002 ($1.4 million combined potential value), the company's largest parent vehicle, with additional significant BPA positions under W911SF12A0004 (9 task orders, $358 thousand), W911S223A5002 (8 task orders, $211 thousand), W911SF23A0001 (7 task orders, $780 thousand), and Air Force Space Command BPA FA252125A0004 (6 task orders, $509 thousand). Separately, Charter holds single-award IDIQs with Veterans Integrated Service Network 8 (VISN 8; $3 million ceiling through July 31, 2031), Air Combat Command ($650 thousand ceiling through December 31, 2030), Federal Bureau of Prisons ($123.9 thousand for Federal Medical Center Lexington through September 30, 2030), and Air Force Space Command ($250 thousand through February 2, 2030). These vehicles enable streamlined task-order procurement across domestic military installations and federal civilian facilities, with work performed on a firm fixed-price basis.

Representative prime work spans commercial connectivity and quality-of-life services. Charter received a $2.0 million purchase order from Veterans Integrated Service Network 17 for cable and internet services across 22 VA facilities statewide in Texas (March 1, 2026, with ultimate completion February 28, 2031). A $509.9 thousand definitive contract from Air Force Materiel Command supplies 100 Gbps commercial internet with five static IP addresses at Edwards Air Force Base (November 5, 2024, through December 31, 2029). A $444.4 thousand purchase order from Pacific Air Forces provides internet and cable for 102 cable accounts and 18 internet accounts across the PACAF Headquarters campus at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (March 8, 2026, through March 7, 2031, with 99% availability requirements). Charter also supplies cable television and internet to naval installations—including Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Camp Lejeune, and New River in North Carolina—and telecommunications circuits (voice, data, local exchange services) to Army, Air Force, and defense agency installations under both individual purchase orders and BPA task orders. The vendor also performs JANUS Project computing infrastructure and data processing work as a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (multiple task orders from January 2026 through March 2026).

Activity has grown year over year from 71 awards in 2022 to 141 in 2024, then declined slightly to 137 in 2025 and 62 awards year-to-date in 2026, reflecting a typical pattern of flat to declining annual task-order volume as large IDIQs and BPAs serve customer requirements. Eighty-four awards (combined potential value $7.3 million) reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing recompete exposure across Army, Air Force, Navy, and DEA locations.

The vendor operates as a single prime entity without disclosed subcontractors on prime awards, maintaining direct responsibility for service delivery. Charter subcontracts to Northrop Grumman on JANUS Project work. At the sub-grant level, Spectrum Mid-America LLC, by its Manager Charter Communications Inc., received two ARPA Broadband Infrastructure grants from the State of Missouri (September 30, 2026 completion date): a $2.7 million grant for fiber optic service to 499 Jefferson County locations and a $6.5 million grant for fiber optic service to 1,068 Washington County locations, both targeting 1 Gbps / 100 Mbps speeds. Charter also participated as sub-recipient in Indiana broadband infrastructure grants to the State of Indiana (April 28, 2022) for a $23.8 million grant covering multi-county fiber deployment across 5,356 passings, designed to deliver at least 100 Mbps symmetrical service.

Service Contract Inventory data capture 16 SCI-reportable records (14 prime, 2 sub) covering FY2022–FY2025. SCI-reported invoicing shows zero dollars across all fiscal years in the SCI dataset, reflecting Charter's commercial telecommunications business model—most federal work is goods-and-services provision (cable subscriptions, circuit provisioning, internet bandwidth) rather than labor-intensive service contracts above the $150 thousand SCI reporting threshold. SCI FTE trajectory shows minimal labor reporting: 0.0 FTEs in FY2022–FY2023, 8.0 FTEs in FY2024, and 0.5 FTEs in FY2025 across the five prime SCI records and one sub record reported each year. The vendor subcontracts zero percent of hours on average across its prime SCI-reportable contracts, maintaining wholly internal delivery.

Charter competes exclusively in full-and-open federal procurement with no small business set-aside usage, positioning itself as a commercial-scale telecommunications infrastructure vendor to the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, civilian law enforcement, and other federal agencies requiring reliable, mission-critical cable television, internet, and voice services at geographically dispersed installations and facilities.