Time Warner Cable Customers Beg Regulators To Block Sale To Comcast

An anonymous reader sends this report from Ars Technica: New York is shaping up as a major battleground for Comcast's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable. While the $45.2 billion merger will be scrutinized by federal officials, it also needs approval at the state level. TWC has 2.2 million cable TV, Internet, and phone customers in 1,150 New York communities, and hundreds of them have called on the New York Public Service Commission to block the sale to Comcast. Comcast doesn't compete against TWC for subscribers, and its territory in New York is limited but includes a VoIP phone service offered to residential and business customers in 10 communities. "Both Time Warner Cable and Comcast already have monopolies in each and every territory in which they do business today, and combining the companies will reinforce those individual territorial monopolies under a single corporate umbrella, with NBC-Universal thrown in to boot," resident Frank Brice argued in a comment to the PSC posted yesterday.

Comments

Predictable outcome

[DoofusOfDeath]

Customers: Please don't!

FTC: Hmm, the customers seem vocal about this one.

Time Warner/Comcast to FTC: Don't you dare...

FTC: We'll need to study the issue.

(One U.S. election cycle passes)

New FTC Head: What's good for Time Warner/Comcast is good for America! Full steam ahead, job-producers!

Re:Predictable outcome

[wiredlogic]

You forgot:
America! Fuck yeah!

Re:Predictable outcome

[AHuxley]

New owners: Competition is a sin.
NSA: One company would be more easy to deal with.
Federal law enforcement: One company would be more easy to deal with.
State law enforcement: One company would be more easy to deal with. Can we keep the networks on copper or coaxial cable in use for a few more decades?
City law enforcement: One company would be more easy to deal with. Optical networks are too expensive to tap. Offer more very low cost mobile plans.
Customers: Free mobile with my new internet plan on a 24 month contract.
The freedom of choice to be online sitting at home or on the move. Every 24 months I get a new free mobile phone.... freedom of choice from a huge selection of approved mobile phones.

Re:Predictable outcome

[bobstreo]

You forgot the part where lobbyists give them $10 million

18 million in 2013 : http://www.opensecrets.org/lob...

3 million so far in 2014: http://www.opensecrets.org/lob...

so 21 million.

Scrutinized by federal officials

[NoKaOi]

The deal will indeed be scrutinized by federal officials, to ensure that campaign contributions are large enough.

Re:Scrutinized by federal officials

[tysonedwards]

At no position on planet earth could any customer have asked themselves "Do I want to be a customer of Comcast or Time Warner Cable?"

That is the "backwards" portion of the proposal, namely the presumed backroom deals going on to ensure that customers would be prevented from having choice, and to ensure that should they dislike the level of service offered, their only option would be to move to a location where you have elected to allow a "competitor" to operate unrestricted by your presence.

The distinction that corporations should have a voice in the political process is itself asinine considering that a corporation is nothing more than a conglomeration of individuals who already possess said voice and can act independently. The removal of campaign contribution caps is itself a travesty considering that it allows for an extremely unleveled playing field. While we are at it, perhaps we should go back to pre-Jacksonian era voting rights and only extend them to individuals who own in excess of 50 acres of property while we are at it; allowing those who want their voice heard to be required to jump through quite specific hoops to buy their way into the system and making those who are "drains on the system" as stated by a our last Presidential Election's Runner-Up sit back and watch.

Re:Hundreds?

[geekoid]

Considering the whole Janet Jackson issue was due to 1(one) letter, maybe they will

Re:Wow

[tysonedwards]

As a slight point of clarification, one member of the public was granted time during the hearing to speak, and said person pre-request it and was asked to submit their script for review. It was not a "we will now open the floor" situation.

Re:Simple economics.

[Dragon Bait]

Free market capitalism is very beneficial to the consumers...when there is open competition. .

When did the free market have anything to do with the telecommunications industry? At least in the United States, it has been a regulated industry for as long as anyone alive can remember. I really wonder why we've let companies with a government created monopoly in one area (local cable monopolies) leverage that monopoly to improve their business position in another area (content creation).

Re:Simple economics.

[rogoshen1]

no, we just need regulatory bodies that have some teeth and backbone enough to say no to lobbyists and bribes. If a company achieves monopoly status, break them up.

This HAS happened in the past, and all the laws to do it are on still on the books. The only reason it doesn't happen is dick douches like Wheeler get spun around the revolving door of government and corporate America.