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posted by martyb on Tuesday April 04 2017, @07:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the Are-You-Tired-of-Winning-Yet? dept.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission [FCC] has voted to reverse a requirement imposed under the Obama administration that Charter Communications Inc extend broadband service to 1 million households already served by a competitor, a source briefed on the matter said.

The decision was a win for a group representing smaller cable companies that petitioned to overturn the "overbuild" requirement and marked the latest reversal of Obama-era requirements by the new Republican-led FCC under President Donald Trump.

As a condition of approval for its acquisition of two cable companies, Charter in May 2016 agreed to extend high-speed internet access to 2 million customers within five years, with 1 million served by a broadband competitor. Under the revised FCC order expected to be made public on Monday, Charter can opt to add all 2 million additional potential subscribers in places without existing service.

Under the new order approved on Friday and disclosed Monday, Charter, the No. 2 U.S. cable company with 26 million residential and business customers in 41 states, must add service to 2 million additional potential subscribers in places without existing service, the FCC said.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/fcc-reverses-charter-communications-overbuild-requirement-source-150458390--finance.html


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by SpockLogic on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:11PM (2 children)

    by SpockLogic (2762) on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:11PM (#488601)

    Another example of how the Trump administration will use competition to bring down prices by ....

    Oh wait, nevermind.

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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:50PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:50PM (#488610)

    Competition is great! Allowing workers to compete with one another brings down costs and increases efficiency. That way businesses will be free to busy themselves with other more important things. like captive markets, rent-seeking, lock-in and other innovations! Recent innovations in the field of advertising are a good example.

    In the past, an enterprising business owner would buy an add in a paper, but he would have no way of knowing if people reading the paper would actually read the advertisement as they were obliged to. Nor did he know how many of his customers were actually brought in this way. These days, due to highly advanced information systems, we not only know exactly how many people viewed the add, but also if they clicked through or not and which color underwear they were wearing that day! This allows us to stalk..ahem... target our potential customers even more effectively with an informative followup advertisement to increase engagement.

    Of course it is not only advertisers profiting from this digital revolution. Insurers would love to get access to this out-of-band data to integrate into their risk-management strategies, near eliminating risk entirely, leaving pure profit. I'm sure there are many more businesses and other entities around the globe using this data to make the world a better place!

    /s

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @12:55PM (#488612)

      Trump! Trump! Trump!