comcast

CPUC takes the Comcast party out of the backroom

24 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

It’s not official yet, but you can safely bet that the California Public Utilities Commission won’t be voting this Thursday on whether or not to approve the proposed Comcast-Time Warner-Charter mega merger and market swap. The CPUC posted an announcement yesterday that another “all parties” meeting will be held in Los Angeles in April to try to thrash out the three-cornered fight over the deal.

Comcast and its presumed partners want the transactions to be rubber-stamped with no conditions, consumer advocacy groups – including the CPUC’s office of ratepayer advocates – say it should be killed outright, and two other groups – the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) and Caltel, a lobbying organisation for competitive phone companies – want the conditions, at least those that benefit their respective interests.… More

Universal service might be the one good reason for the CPUC to replace Charter with Comcast

23 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, , , ,


Blue indicate likely communities redlined by Charter, although analysis is still in progress. Yellow is where Charter offers broadband. Click for a bigger – 8.5 MB – version.

One condition could make all the difference for the proposed decision in front of the California Public Utilities Commission that would formally approve the pending mega merger and market swap between Comcast, Time-Warner and Charter. The way the decision reads now, it would impose 25 different conditions on the deal, ranging from rates that can be charged for particular telephone and broadband services, to budgets for marketing to low income households, to requirements for battery backups.… More

Comcast isn't telling the truth about cable competition, says CPUC staff

20 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, ,

Comcast continues to loudly claim that its proposed merger with Time-Warner Cable and market swap with Charter Communications would not be anti-competitive because it doesn’t compete with either company. Cable operators are geographically separated and overbuilding each other is not economically feasible, Comcast says, so mixing and merging would have no effect on competition.

That’s false, according to a motion filed with the California Public Utilities Commission by its own office of ratepayer advocates (ORA). In the process of going through millions of documents that Comcast and its cohorts have given to the CPUC and the FCC for confidential review, ORA has found, it says, three items that prove that Comcast plans to sell television service via the Internet – over the top (OTT) – that, by its very nature, is not geographically limited…

The significance of these documents cannot be underestimated as they show that competitive entry into the OTT services market can now be accomplished without overbuilding, and therefore, the economic barrier to an OTT service provider entering into an incumbent provider’s operating area, such as Comcast competing head to head against TWC and vice versa, disappears…

The bottom line is that OTT is another example of Comcast using its control of telecommunications facilities to leverage ancillary markets.

… More

CPUC commissioners say no back room deals for Comcast

18 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

Don’t even think about going there.

Responding to fears that the CPUC would grant Comcast its wish and cut a deal in private to approve its proposed mega merger and market swap with Time-Warner and Charter, several commissioners publicly said no way at their meeting in San Francisco last week.

Carla Peterman is the commissioner assigned to manage the merger review process. She said she’s following the commission’s ex parte rules which strictly limit one-on-one discussions…

Someone expressed some concern that some parties might have unique access through the ex parte process to kind of negotiate or influence decisions and particularly there was a mention of the Comcast Time-Warner proceeding.

… More

Californian conditions on Comcast merger may be trumped by FCC

17 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,

The ref seems okay with it.

Comcast correctly anticipated the details of the FCC’s Internet common carrier ruling when it objected to conditions that a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge wants to slap on its mega merger and market swap with Time-Warner and Charter. In its response to the CPUC’s proposed decision, Comcast said…

The [CPUC] Proposed Decision directly conflicts with this new federal policy by imposing a host of requirements pertaining to rates, service terms, and wholesale offerings, as well as burdensome reporting obligations…These are necessarily interstate offerings, and as such, the [CPUC] is preempted under long-established principles of federal law from regulating broadband services in the ways suggested in the Proposed Decision.

… More

Let's settle this behind closed doors Comcast tells CPUC

12 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

If it was good enough for PG&E, it should be swell for Comcast.

Comcast, and its would-be merger and market swap partners, don’t like any of the conditions that would be imposed on the deal, if a proposed decision by a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge is approved. Not surprisingly, in a 60 page objection, the so-called Joint Applicants – Comcast and friends might be a better description – run through the 25 conditions proposed conditions and find fault with every one.… More

Debate continues over whether proposed Comcast merger benefits outweigh the damage

11 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

Not expecting time off for good behavior.

Ten organisations filed comments about a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge’s proposed decision regarding the Comcast/Time-Warner/Charter Communications mega-merger and market swap. Seven want the deal killed altogether, and argue that the mostly temporary conditions proposed would not offset the damage done to broadband service in California. The Greenlining Institute, a consumer advocacy group, detailed Comcast’s obstreperous response to the draft decision and said…

While the proposed conditions are well-intended, they simply cannot rehabilitate a merger which would hand Comcast a potentially permanent monopoly in virtually all of the largest markets in both California and the United States, giving Comcast unprecedented power to raise prices, decrease service quality, and harm consumers.

… More

Deny the Comcast merger, don't try to fix it with conditions urges CPUC ratepayer advocates

10 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

If it’s that broke, trash it.

Comments are coming thick and fast regarding the proposed decision by a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) administrative law judge to approve, with conditions, the mega-merger and market swap between Comcast, Time-Warner and Charter Communications. I’m still working my way through the stack – the CPUC posted the documents yesterday – but one of the filings, from the CPUC’s office of ratepayer advocates (ORA) jumps out.

As it has all along, ORA is urging outright rejection of the transactions…

As the [proposed decision (PD)] correctly concludes, the Joint Applicants [i.e.

… More

People don't need fast broadband, senator tells FCC

6 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, ,

I wonder if he knows what he’s up against?

While browsing through the FCC’s recently released documents today, I came upon a gem of an exchange between chairman Tom Wheeler and senator Orrin Hatch (R – Utah), regarding the proposed mega-merge and market swap involving Comcast, Time-Warner and Charter. Last month, Hatch wrote a letter to Wheeler and the federal justice department’s top anti-trust attorney, explaining why it would be okay if “a post-merger Comcast would control a substantial proportion of the national fixed Internet broadband market, perhaps as high as 65 percent”.… More

Effort to give FCC all of California's data on Comcast deal

4 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Adding better dirt to the pile.

The California Public Utilities Commission has amassed a stockpile of proprietary information and confidential analyses regarding the proposed mega-merger and market swap that would put all of Time-Warner’s and nearly all of Charter Communication’s cable systems in California in the hands of Comcast. A utility consumer advocacy group, The Utility Reform Network (TURN), wants all that information turned over to the FCC for its consideration as it likewise evaluates the deal…

TURN recommends…the CPUC provide the FCC with copies of the full confidential versions of the briefs, including all attached declarations and exhibits, and data requests questions and responses of all parties in these consolidated proceedings, giving the FCC the benefit of the analysis and recommendations of all of the parties on the issues that are critical from a California-centric perspective.

… More