New York State Threatens To Revoke Charter's Cable Franchise For Bullshitting

from the ill-communication dept

New York State and the nation's second biggest cable provider (Charter Spectrum) aren't getting along particularly well. Early last year, Charter Spectrum was sued by New York State for selling broadband speeds the company knew it couldn't deliver. According to the original complaint (pdf), Charter routinely misled consumers, refused to seriously upgrade its networks, and manipulated a system the FCC used to determine whether the company was delivering advertised broadband speeds to the company's subscribers (it wasn't).

Charter has tried to use the FCC's net neutrality repeal to claim that states can't hold it accountable for terrible service, but that hasn't been going particularly well.

Meanwhile, Charter is also facing heat from the state after the State Public Service Commission found that Charter routinely mislead regulators about its efforts to meet conditions affixed to its $89 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. As part of that deal, Charter was supposed to expand service to "145,000 unserved and underserved residential housing units and/or businesses within four years." But the company was fined $2 million after regulators found it repeatedly tried to pretend it had expanded services to areas that weren't actually upgraded.

Things have only gotten uglier from there. Last week, the NY PSC accused the company of gaslighting its customers after it repeatedly tried to tap dance around merger obligations despite repeated fines. The company promised a "universe of synergies" ahead of the deal, but consumers only received even higher prices and even worse customer service than the company was already known for:

"Charter's claims are simply false and the commission will not stand idly by while Charter deceives the public and its shareholders," (NY PSC Chairman John) Rhodes said. "Charter's own data shows a gaping hole between its commitments and its performance. New York will not tolerate Charter's gaslighting its own customers into believing it is meeting its promises."

The state PSC says Charter's deception may force it to take an almost-unheard of action, the revocation of the company's cable franchise agreement in the state:

"Not only has the company failed to meet its obligations to build out its cable system as required, it continues to make patently false and misleading claims to consumers that it has met those obligations without in any way acknowledging the findings of the Public Service Commission to the contrary," Rhodes said. "Our patience with Charter has come to an end and now we must move to take much stronger actions."

Historically, state legislatures and regulators are almost comical rubber stamps for regional broadband monopolies, one of several reasons why American broadband tends to be monumentally terrible in many parts of the country (regulatory apathy in the face of limited competition is a pretty fatal combination). But as we're seeing with state-level net neutrality efforts, the federal assault on broadband consumer protections and accountability appear to have resulted in at least a handful of states growing a spine and actually giving a damn.

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Filed Under: cable franchise, misleading regulators, new york

Companies: charter, charter spectrum, time warner cable