Charter Avoids Getting Kicked Out of New York, Agrees To New Merger Conditions (arstechnica.com) 21
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Charter Communications won't be kicked out of New York after all. Nine months after a New York government agency ordered Charter to leave the state over its alleged failure to comply with merger conditions, state officials have announced a settlement that will let Charter stay in New York in exchange for further broadband expansions. The settlement will enforce a new version of the original merger conditions and require a $12 million payment, about half of which could help other ISPs deploy broadband.
The State Public Service Commission (PSC) had voted in July 2018 to revoke its approval of Charter's 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable (TWC), saying Charter failed to meet interim deadlines for broadband-expansion requirements. The order, which came just a month after a $2 million fine, would have required Charter to sell the TWC system to another provider. But the PSC never enforced the merger revocation order as it repeatedly granted deadline extensions to Charter while the sides held settlement talks. The result is a proposed settlement between Charter and the state Department of Public Service (DPS) that was announced Friday. "Pursuant to the agreement, Charter would expand its network to provide high-speed broadband service to 145,000 residences and businesses entirely in Upstate New York; the network expansion would be completed by September 30, 2021 in accordance with a schedule providing frequent interim enforceable milestone requirements; and Charter will pay $12 million to expand broadband service to additional unserved and underserved premises," a DPS statement said.
Half of the $12 million could go back to Charter but they'd "have to use it to deploy broadband to locations in addition to the 145,000 already required," the report notes. "The other $6 million would fund broadband deployment projects in a competitive bidding process, and it could thus end up going to Charter's competitors -- although Charter would be eligible to bid for the funding, too."
The State Public Service Commission (PSC) had voted in July 2018 to revoke its approval of Charter's 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable (TWC), saying Charter failed to meet interim deadlines for broadband-expansion requirements. The order, which came just a month after a $2 million fine, would have required Charter to sell the TWC system to another provider. But the PSC never enforced the merger revocation order as it repeatedly granted deadline extensions to Charter while the sides held settlement talks. The result is a proposed settlement between Charter and the state Department of Public Service (DPS) that was announced Friday. "Pursuant to the agreement, Charter would expand its network to provide high-speed broadband service to 145,000 residences and businesses entirely in Upstate New York; the network expansion would be completed by September 30, 2021 in accordance with a schedule providing frequent interim enforceable milestone requirements; and Charter will pay $12 million to expand broadband service to additional unserved and underserved premises," a DPS statement said.
Half of the $12 million could go back to Charter but they'd "have to use it to deploy broadband to locations in addition to the 145,000 already required," the report notes. "The other $6 million would fund broadband deployment projects in a competitive bidding process, and it could thus end up going to Charter's competitors -- although Charter would be eligible to bid for the funding, too."
Re: (Score:1)
It's the ebb and flow of business and government. Some of it involves legitimate grievances...most of it is made-up BS because one side or the other feels slighted/jilted. In this case, New York was not satisfied with the Spectrum merger because when the merger agenda was pushed through NY regulators, both companies promised that they would extend broadband coverage into the loss-leading rural parts of the state. Up until then, they had been more than happy to service the urban population centers where the
Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
"We've failed in doing what we promised for so long you basically threw us out. If we promise more stuff we're not going to deliver on, can we keep screwing you over?"
"Absolutely! Thanks for the opportunity!"
This is why the public ALWAYS loses. Because the people making the decisions don't give a single fuck about the rest of us. Yet we dutifully and pridefully line up every couple of years to ensure they can do it again by voting the same idiots into office.
Murika.
Re: (Score:2)
"Yet we dutifully and pridefully line up every couple of years to ensure they can do it again by voting the same idiots into office."
But this is why we deserve this.
The government is a direct reflection of the people. And people fucking hate that comment because they know how true it is! If they people were decent then why would they tolerate indecent politicians in office? If they hated corruption why would they continue to allow it to exist without recalling them? This might shock you, but people more
I live in upstate rural NY (Score:2)