Cable Companies Tell FCC More Competition Will 'Harm Consumers' A coalition of small cable companies are complaining that a minor FCC condition attached to the Charter merger means there's a small chance they may just have to compete. As part of the FCC's merger conditions the agency states that Charter needs to expand broadband to an additional 2 million homes -- 1 million of which must already be served by a competing broadband provider providing speeds of at least 25 Mbps.

That has upset the ACA -- a lobbying and policy coalition of small cable providers -- which says the demand for greater competition would somehow "damage economic efficiency, injure small providers, and harm consumers." According to the ACA's filing (pdf) with the FCC, the overbuild condition is "stunningly bad and inexplicable government policy" that would have "devastating effects on the smaller broadband providers Charter will overbuild." Granted most of these more rural providers operate in markets wear competition is weak to non-existent, and they'd all like to keep it that way. On the other hand, the ACA does make the point -- as we noted -- that the FCC's order approving the merger spends a huge amount of time detailing how bad the merger will be for consumers. "On the one hand, the FCC found that Charter will be too big and therefore it imposed a series of conditions to ensure it does not exercise any additional market power," stated the ACA. "At the same time, the FCC, out of the blue, is forcing Charter to get even bigger." But in one sense, the ACA's statement and filing make it clear it hasn't really been paying attention. Charter CEO Tom Rutledge last month made it very clear that the company would primarily adhere to the FCC's build out condition by targeting small phone companies, not cable companies. Why? Charter doesn't want to build duplicate facilities if it can just turn around and buy these smaller cable companies in a few years. "When I talked to the FCC, I said I can’t overbuild another cable company, because then I could never buy it, because you always block those," Rutledge recently said. "It’s really about overbuilding telephone companies." That's because most phone companies are so debt-loaded and cash strapped they can't possibly deliver fiber to the home anytime soon. That makes them much easier targets for Charter than cable companies, for whom DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 upgrades are notably less expensive. "Why would we go where we could get killed?" rhetorically asked the CEO. So while that means the ACA's member companies don't really have much to worry about from the FCC's order, trying to pretend that a tiny shred of additional competition would somehow hurt consumers is a nice theatrical touch. So while that means the ACA's member companies don't really have much to worry about from the FCC's order, trying to pretend that a tiny shred of additional competition would somehow hurt consumers is a nice theatrical touch.







News Jump California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news FCC Cited False Broadband Data Despite Warnings; ZTE, Huawei Replacement Cost Is $1.87B, But Only $1B Allocated; + more Cogeco Rejects Altice USA's Atlantic Broadband Bid; AT&T Is Astroturfing The FCC In Support Of Trump Attack; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 35 comments



TIGERON

join:2008-03-11

Boston, MA Motorola MG7550

36 recommendations TIGERON Member oh boo hoo ISPs in the United States DO NOT compete against each other. They cooperate creating the nasty high prices low quality terrible services we have in this nation.



If we had real competition such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, or Ireland do, there be no need for data caps, prices would be much much lower, FTTP and FTTC middle mile networks would have been deployed on a massive scale, last mile DSL would have been upgraded to VDSL G.fast. DOCSIS 3.1 cable upgrades would already be fully up to gigabit speeds and deployed everywhere, TV and cable TV would have moved OTT with apps installed on streaming boxes such as Apple TV and the amazon firebox, and ISPs would have cooperated with streaming companies, and 90% of this country would have been connected boosting e-commerce which in turn would've created more jobs.



Instead we allowed these companies to take taxpayer money to which they mostly pocketed giving us this lousy shit we have now which is only getting much worse before it will get better. microphone

Premium Member

join:2009-04-29

Parkville, MD 9 recommendations microphone Premium Member I do think there should be some protection for the small cable operators In my opinion, allowing corporations to own cable companies, tv stations, radio stations, and newspapers across state/town lines started the downfall of our media production and consumption. There is no incentive to have people that care at the local level if they live 1000 miles away and own another 1000 of something just like it.