Charter Communications Inc. has entered into agreements to purchase two cable companies that will add more than 1.5 million customers to its list of cable users.

The purchase includes Falcon Cable TV, which has more than 1 million cable users in 27 states, including a wide area of Southeast Missouri.

Falcon, headquartered in Los Angeles, acquired TCI Cable in the Cape Girardeau and Jackson areas in April 1998 and now owns systems in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston, Perryville, Oran, Scott City, Chaffee, Charleston, Benton, East Prairie, Ste. Genevieve, Morehouse, Poplar Bluff, Dexter and Malden.

Statewide in Missouri, Falcon has more than 90,000 subscribers.

It could be months before cable customers in the region can tell any difference in their cable system. Roger Harms, local franchise manager for Falcon, said the cable system agreement will take months before it is finalized.

The purchase of Falcon, the eighth-largest cable company in the nation, will make Charter Communications the fourth-largest cable system in the nation.

One day after the Falcon agreement, Charter announced an agreement to purchase Fanch Communications headquartered in Denver. Fanch will bring 547,000 subscribers to Charter's list of almost 5 million customers.

Fanch, which has the base for both digital cable and broadband, has customers in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kentucky, Louisiana, Wisconsin and Indiana. There wil be some geographic overlaps in some of these locations as other Charter deals are completed.

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen has invested about $16 billion on cable purchases during the past two years, including his 1998 purchase of Charter.

Charter has acquired 10 cable companies this year, including the $3.6 million purchase of Falcon.

Terms were not disclosed on the Fanch acquisition, but sources say the price could be in the $2 million range.