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In 2016, cable giant Charter Communications made several promises required by federal regulators as a condition for approval of a merger agreement that would make Charter even bigger.

Are Spectrum And Time Warner The Same Company

Are Spectrum And Time Warner The Same Company

Are you surprised that Charter is asking the Federal Communications Commission to overturn some of those terms now that they’re so old? no one.

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The result of such FCC action would allow Charter, which operates cable and broadband systems under the Spectrum brand, to raise prices for many of its Internet customers. (Full disclosure: The Times partners with Spectrum on regular local TV news shows.)

Why would any reasonable business take the time to get permission to do something it has no intention of doing?

In approving Charter’s $88 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, the FCC barred Charter from imposing a data cap on customers for seven years — that is, if customers’ Internet usage exceeds certain limits — or until mid-2023.

The commission also banned streaming video providers like Netflix from charging Charter for connections to its system at the same time.

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In a petition filed with the FCC on June 17, Charter called for the provision to be removed as early as May 2021, or two years earlier. The cable company cited a bailout clause in an appendix to the FCC’s order that allows it to request permission to shorten the deadline to five years. The FCC, whose initial public comment period on the petition ended Tuesday, has slammed its schedule as too busy.

There is nothing new about companies making expensive concessions to get what they want from regulators, who are trying to renege on their promises. I have reported several cases of this in the past few weeks.

T-Mobile last month asked the California Public Utilities Commission to waive several conditions attached to the PUC’s approval of its merger with Sprint.

Are Spectrum And Time Warner The Same Company

Large Northern California hospital chain Sutter Health is seeking to delay judicial review of its 2019 antitrust settlement with California Atty. General Xavier Becerra. (A state judge denied that request.)

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Both companies cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason for their request, but it’s a fair bet that if the pandemic hadn’t happened, they would have looked for other reasons.

Consumer advocates typically criticize data caps, particularly for fixed broadband service subscribers, who do not face the same bandwidth restrictions as wireless communications.

As the Consumers Union put it in 2015, data caps raise the prospect of higher prices and the expansion of “bandwidth-intensive activities like streaming TV shows and movies”.

It also proliferated as mergers reduced broadband options for the average consumer. In addition, the key to COVID-19 has been increasing household dependence on broadband use, as more consumers spend time at home, using the Internet for work and entertainment.

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There are several interesting aspects to the Charter petition. One is that there are currently no plans to impose data caps on customers, with spokesman Justin Wenech vowing that he has “no plans to do so” in the future.

“I would be skeptical,” said Matt Wood, general counsel for the consumer group Free Press. “Why would any reasonable business take the time to get a permit to do something they don’t want to do?”

On the other hand, Piagam said in a public statement about his request that he was “looking for a level playing field so that we can continue to grow and better serve our customers throughout the country.” You see major competitors like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast impose data caps or data allowances on various usage levels.

Are Spectrum And Time Warner The Same Company

Of course, if Charter can’t follow a business model that its competitors can follow, it’s not a level playing field. But it’s important to remember that this is a level playing field with the Charter – by agreeing to these terms is to agree to it.

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Charter’s petition states that despite the ability of large broadband providers to reduce customer data usage, the streaming video business and its customers, which the term merges, are “growing” — nay, exploding.

Instead, the Charter says, “users of the highest power video, showing an insatiable interest in the choice of video.” Of course, viewer interest in video content will increase with or without data caps, so it’s hard to see the relevance of this claim.

Charter’s basic claim is that the streaming video market, which accounts for the majority of Internet data usage, has become “almost unrecognizable from what it was in 2016.” That’s why the ban has been around for so long.

The government’s approval of a merger that will create the country’s second largest cable and Internet service is a wonderful gift that should not be given lightly.

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If that’s true, it doesn’t say much about the business model staff of Charter Communications, which posted a $3.5 billion profit on $29 billion in revenue in 2016, so some seasoned forecasters might have it. (In 2019, the company earned $1.7 billion on revenue of $45.8 billion.)

But the notion that streaming video will grow stronger year after year may not be a secret. That’s part of the reason for the Charter-Time Warner Cable merger. Charter is one of the few Internet providers to focus entirely on broadband services, instead of jumping the whole hog on entertainment content like Comcast acquired NBC Universal and AT&T by acquiring WarnerMedia.

Data caps imposed by some rival charters have been defended as too loose for most customers to reach them. For example, Comcast increased its limit from 300 gigabytes to 1 terabyte per month in 2016; Above that level, additional fees apply. A gigabyte is only one billion bytes, and a terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes.

Are Spectrum And Time Warner The Same Company

AT & T estimates that to reach 1 terabyte, users must send and receive 11,000 emails, spend 142 hours of standard video streaming, 129 hours of high-definition video, 94 hours of super-high-def 4k video, and 345 hours. Upload 2,000 social media posts and photos in online games, all in one month.

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But, “that’s an argument with an expiration date,” Wood said. “Ten years ago people would have said, ‘Why does anyone need 25 megabits per second'” Internet speed?

If there is one truth that transcends all technological boundaries, it is that the speed, capacity and utilization of technological resources will increase. Computers today make yesterday look miserable, and some smartphones today even make computers miserable.

Comcast customers and supporters may believe that the cable company’s reputation for poor service was a key factor in federal regulators’ displeasure with the merger with Time Warner Cable, which has now been called off.

What’s remarkable about these usage figures is video – since 4k streaming is a large share of video consumption, data usage will increase proportionally – not to mention the possibility that data-heavy video technologies will eventually emerge.

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Broadband usage has surpassed levels that Internet companies thought were unattainable just a few years ago. For example, in 2017, Coax Cable only 2% of its users reached the 1-terabyte level. Last month it was 10%.

“The state of the art is evolving very quickly in this field,” added Wood. If the company does not expect customers to reach the level of use of 1-terabyte, “why will they set the limit there?”

However, the smart money says Charter’s request to be exempt from previous obligations will sail through the Republican-dominated FCC. The death was cast during the original ratification, which took place in a committee controlled by Democrats.

Are Spectrum And Time Warner The Same Company

GOP Commissioner Ajit Pai voted against approval because he objected to the conditions. The recognition order “is not about competition, competition, competition; It’s about control, control, control,” Pai’s spokesman said at the time. “It’s about the government micromanaging the Internet economy.” GOP Commissioner Michael O’Reilly voted to consolidate it, but declined of that term.

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Both are still in the FCC – and President Trump promoted Pai to the chairmanship. Chances are good they will look good on the Charter request.

The FCC has been accused of paving the way for Charter requests. Interestingly, the allegations came from the conservative news organization Newsmax Media.

Newsmax, which has a commercial interest in preventing data caps from Internet service providers that carry its content, said the commission has set a two-month comment period for the request, based on the terms of the original merger agreement. The FCC’s rush to comment created “undue bias” against Charter, Newsmax said.

This is especially true given the possibility that the FCC could return to Democratic control early next year, complicating Charter application.

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Regardless of the rationale of the Charter

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John Pablo

📅 Born: May 15, 1985 📍 Location: New York City 🖋️ Writer | Financial Enthusiast Welcome to my corner of the web! I'm John Pablo—a finance enthusiast and writer passionate about making money matters simple and accessible.

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