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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday July 14 2019, @12:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the eh-we-tried dept.

Submitted via IRC for AnonymousLuser

Charter gets final approval to stay in NY despite breaking merger promise

Charter Communications has received final approval to stay in New York State despite violating merger commitments related to its 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable.

The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) had revoked its approval of the merger and ordered Charter to sell the former Time Warner Cable system in July 2018. Charter repeatedly failed to meet deadlines for broadband expansions that were required in exchange for merger approval, state officials said.

But Charter and state officials struck a deal in April, and yesterday the PSC approved the settlement.

"Under the terms of the agreement, Charter will expand its network to provide high-speed broadband service to 145,000 residences and businesses entirely in Upstate New York and will pay an additional $12 million to expand broadband service to additional premises," yesterday's PSC announcement said.

The 2016 merger approval required Charter to extend its high-speed broadband network to 145,000 unserved and underserved homes and businesses by 2020. Under the settlement, Charter now has until September 30, 2021 to complete the buildout.

"To date, Charter has passed approximately 65,000 of the required 145,000 addresses," the PSC said.

[...] Charter had claimed that it met its interim deadlines, but state officials found that Charter was counting locations that it was already required to serve as part of franchise agreements. The state hit Charter with a $2 million fine in June 2018 and a $1 million fine in June 2017.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 14 2019, @01:05PM (3 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday July 14 2019, @01:05PM (#866882) Journal

    Far, far, FAR too often, governments buckle, and allow the corps to get away with near-murder. NY should have booted their asses, just to make an example. Once again, I'll remind everyone that you need a "business license" to be in business. That is, you apply to the state for permission to do business within the state. Doesn't matter whether you're headquartered in Delaware for the tax benefits, or in Abu Dhabi for tax evasion benefits - you have to have a business license. Government needs to assert itself over the corporations, and do it quickly. Otherwise, we'll see more and more of the corps raping consumers, not to mention governments.

    How 'bout that nonsense that a village, town, or city may not create it's own publicly owned ISP, because some corp might want to someday make a profit in the area? That should have been shot down before any lawyer ever formed the idea.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by RamiK on Sunday July 14 2019, @02:07PM (1 child)

    by RamiK (1813) on Sunday July 14 2019, @02:07PM (#866888)

    You haven't read between the lines: The commission sold out downstate (where the deadlines were failing in the first place) for expensive broadband for upstate while framing it as a "settlement" so it bypasses the municipal contract procedure.

    It's brilliant really.

    --
    compiling...
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 14 2019, @02:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 14 2019, @02:31PM (#866902)

      Reading what wasn't between the lines... Cash exchanged hands behind closed doors.

  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday July 14 2019, @10:22PM

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday July 14 2019, @10:22PM (#866994)

    You may have misunderstood who runs your country.