public policy

Death of the Comcast deal isn't the end of broadband consolidation in California

27 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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It keeps pulling itself back together.

The end of the Comcast – Time Warner – Charter mega-merger and market swap means the cable television market in California will still be split mostly between the four largest U.S. cable companies, which are those three plus Cox. At least for now.

Conventional wisdom says that Time Warner is still in play, and Charter is likely to be the next company to make a move. Unless Time Warner decides to try to buy Charter first.… More

Rural telcos challenge Sierra wireless broadband proposals

26 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the complete challenge letter.

Three rural telephone companies are challenging wireless broadband projects in the Sierra Nevada proposed by Cal.net for construction grants from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).

Volcano Telephone Company, Calaveras Telephone Company and Sierra Telephone Company jointly sent a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission on Friday saying they provide adequate broadband service – at least 6 Mbps download and 1.5 Mbps upload speeds – to some of the areas targeted by Cal.net… More

No tears at the Comcast-Time Warner-Charter mega-deal funeral

25 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Whoops. Missed the ruby slippers again.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler and U.S. attorney general Eric Holder both took a victory lap yesterday, proclaiming that the death of the Comcast-Time Warner-Charter deal was, respectively, “in the best interests” and the “best outcome” for U.S. consumers.

And so it is. And doubly so for California, where Comcast would have been left with control – monopoly or duopoly – of at least 86% of the broadband market.… More

Comcast-Time Warner-Charter mega deal is dead

24 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Comcast’s “merger agreement with Time Warner Cable and its transactions agreement with Charter Communications, Inc. have been terminated”, according to a company statement this morning. CEO Brian Roberts was quoted as saying “today, we move on. Of course, we would have liked to bring our great products to new cities, but we structured this deal so that if the government didn’t agree, we could walk away”.

And walk away they did.

So far, no official statement from Charter.… More

Comcast deal shuddering to a halt in Washington

24 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Hard to guarantee good predatory behavior.

UPDATE 24 April 2015: Comcast and Time Warner have officially called it off.

The mega-merger and market swap involving Comcast, Time Warner and Charter is either dead or dying, according to news reports. Bloomberg reported that Comcast isn’t happy with FCC and federal department of justice plans to send the deal into a hearing process, which is usually a prelude to killing proposed mergers, although it’s possible to mount a defence.… More

Feds figure out that the Comcast deal looks the same from Washington as it does from California

21 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Looks the same from either side.

The federal justice department might save the California Public Utilities Commission the trouble of killing the Comcast/Time Warner/Charter deal.

First Bloomberg reported that the justice department is about to send the matter into a proceeding – an administrative hearing – that would, in all likelihood, end with the mega-merger and market swap being tanked on anti-trust grounds. Then, the Wall Street Journal followed up with an article saying that Comcast and Time Warner execs were planning to meet with the justice department on Wednesday to try to negotiate their way out of that dead end process.… More

Tacoma considers a private bailout plan for muni broadband system

20 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Local choice is not a free ride.

The City of Tacoma might back out of the cable TV and broadband business, and lease its municipal cable system to a private operator for 40 years (h/t to the Baller-Herbst list for the pointer).

The muni system – branded Click – was built on the back of a fiber optic network originally installed to support the city-owned electric utility. It competes against Comcast and CenturyLink, which is a benefit to local residents in the sense that they have a third option and a source of pressure on what would otherwise be cable and telephone monopolies.… More

Comcast offers California a few crumbs

19 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Not what the CPUC was thinking of ordering.

It’s almost certainly too little, too late, but Comcast has offered a few concessions to the California Public Utilities Commission, in the hopes of gaining approval for its proposed mega-merger and market swap with Time Warner and Charter. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Comcast came to a public meeting in LA last week with a much lighter alternative to the long list of conditions proposed by a CPUC hearing officer…

On Tuesday the company submitted a list of voluntary commitments that it said would be acceptable.

… More

Comcast sings the same old tune in LA

16 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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You weren’t expecting a new act, were you?

It doesn’t look like any progress was made at a California Public Utilities Commission-supervised meeting between Comcast, its would-be mega-merger allies and opponents of the deal in Los Angeles on Tuesday. I was thinking of flying down to LA to see the show, but after reading the news accounts of it, I’m glad I didn’t. It seems – judging from those reports, anyway – that it was more of the same old, same old.… More

More lawsuits challenge FCC common carrier broadband rules

15 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Everyone jumps in.

The telecoms industry is piling on the Federal Communications Commission, filing a total of five separate appeals against the decision to impose common carrier rules on broadband service and infrastructure. The petitions were submitted to the federal appeals court – circuit, as it’s called – based in Washington, DC.

The most detailed protest came from the American Cable Association (ACA), which represents small cable companies…

The order (among other things) reclassifies broadband Internet access service as a “telecommunications service” subject to common carrier regulation under Title II of the Telecommunications Act of 1996…[the sections of Title II the FCC intends to enforce] impose significant new regulatory requirements—including substantive prohibitions, mandatory procedures, and record-keeping requirements on ACA’s members, many of which have never previously been subject to Title II regulation of any sort.

… More