Albany

Charter Communications should complete its $55 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable next week after getting approval for the deal from California regulators on Thursday — paving the way for what is expected to be cheaper, faster internet service for Capital Region consumers.

Approval of the mega deal by the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday was the last regulatory hurdle that Charter had to complete after the Federal Communications Commission signed off on the acquisition last week.

Utility regulators in New York state approved the deal in January with a long list of consumer-friendly conditions designed to improve customer service, increase internet speeds to 300 megabits per second and retain local jobs.

But Time Warner customers shouldn't expect much to change right away, Charter spokesman Justin Venech said.

"On Day One, customers of (Time Warner) won't really see any changes," Venech said. "Time Warner Cable and Charter Spectrum will continue offering their current suite of advanced products and services to customers in their markets."

But after a while — Venech couldn't provide specific time lines — Charter will start rolling out its own Spectrum brand in upstate markets. And if a customer likes their current deals with Time Warner, they can keep them in place, he said.

"As we go all digital market by market, we will launch the Spectrum brand product, pricing and packaging, and Charter will also launch Spectrum in those markets in which (Time Warner has) already gone all digital," Venech said. "We will be communicating directly with customers, letting them know when they will start seeing the Spectrum brand. In addition, when our Spectrum packages launch, if a customer likes the package they are currently in, they will be able to stay in that package."

Time Warner Cable, with about 300,000 customers in the greater Capital Region, provides phone, internet and cable TV service throughout much of upstate, including in the Albany area.

Charter, a much smaller company based in Fairfield, Conn., is buying Time Warner and its massive network to become one of the largest cable and internet providers in the country.

"We are pleased to have now obtained all approvals," Tom Rutledge, CEO of Charter said in a statement. "We look forward to closing these transactions next week and to begin delivering the many benefits of these transactions to consumers."

Rutledge is known for his focus on customer service and pushing for all-digital TV programming that can free up the company's network for higher internet speeds at cheaper prices than most cable TV companies now offer.

Charter has said in the past that Time Warner Cable customers will see their basic Internet speed jump from 15 megabits per second to 60 megabits per second, for about the same price of $39.99 a month. For current Time Warner customers to get speeds almost that fast, which provide a major increase in download speeds for video and other media, they have to pay $70 or more.

Charter's basic TV and internet combo package, which includes 125 channels and 60 megabits per second internet service, is about $90 a month, about the same as a Time Warner plan with 200 channels and 15 megabits per second internet.

Charter has also agreed to a massive expansion of the existing Time Warner cable network, extending its reach into rural areas that until now have had little or no choice for high-speed internet and cable TV.

Under its deal with the New York state Public Service Commission, Charter must add 145,000 homes to its network that are not currently reached by Time Warner Cable for no charge to consumers.

And it must offer 300 megabits per second internet speeds to all New Yorkers by 2019, a high-end service currently only available to Time Warner Cable subscribers in New York City.

The "net benefit" to New Yorkers will be $1 billion, according to the commission, which includes hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment in the state. Time Warner Cable has 2.6 million customers in the state, although its typical internet package has download speeds of just 15 megabits per second, which is slower than federal standards for high speed "broadband" Internet.

"Charter will begin doing the necessary work to bring all of (Time Warner's) systems all-digital, grow the workforce and improve care by insourcing and bringing back to the U.S. overseas Time Warner call center jobs, and launching a superior product set, at highly competitive prices," Venech said.

The move of Charter into the New York market may also put pressure on Verizon to lower its prices for its FiOS fiber optic broadband internet and cable TV service. Although Verizon is no longer expanding its FiOS footprint, it could end up losing subscribers on its system to Charter, which would lower the return on its investment in the existing FiOS network.

lrulison@timesunion.com • 518-454-5504 • @larryrulison