Charter Hires Net Neutrality Activist To Make Policy

An anonymous reader writes: The Federal Communications Commission has been at loggerheads with many ISPs lately, after the agency pushed through net neutrality rules that have now gone into effect. The defeat of Comcast's attempted acquisition of Time Warner Cable was hailed by many net neutrality activists as a victory, but then came the news that Charter was looking to buy TWC instead — which brought the worries back. But now Charter has taken the unusual step of hiring one of those activists to help develop its policy: Marvin Ammori. He says, "Charter hired me—which, to be honest, took some humility on its part since I have helped lead public campaigns against cable companies like Charter—to advise it in crafting its commitment to network neutrality. After our negotiation, I can say Charter is offering the strongest network neutrality commitments ever offered—in any merger or, to my knowledge, in any nation. In fact, in the end, I personally wrote the commitments." Put briefly, Charter agreed to abide by the interconnection mandates and prohibition of paid prioritization — regardless of the outcome of pending litigation from the ISPs fighting it — for a minimum of three years. The company has also promised no data caps and no usage-based billing.

Comments

Alternately ...

[gstoddart]

But now Charter has taken the unusual step of hiring one of those activists to help develop its policy

Alternate "tinfoil hat" explanation:

Once he's in house, sufficiently "re-educated" and compensated, and once the lawmakers have been paid off properly, then he will become a lobbyist to tell us in newspeak that net neutrality is slavery, and that corporations should be able to block competitors and promote their own services as innovation.

I hope this guy is honest and sticks to his guns. But my experience in the world suggests a much darker outcome.

I keep putting more layers, and the world keeps showing me I'm not paranoid enough.

What does it say when this is...

[Immostlyharmless]

What does it say when this is the strongest commitment ever?

"We promise if you consider letting this go through that we won't break the law for at least....um....yeah 3 years sounds good to us, what do you think?"

Are they fucking kidding?

I actually like Charter

[Anonymous Coward]

I know it goes totally again the slashdot manifesto to actually like a cable company, but in my area (West Michigan) Charter has been nothing but fantastic for over a decade now. They have been incredibly reliable, very responsive (are happy to bury new cables to your home if your old ones aren't up to the job, for example) to problems, offer an "internet only" package at a (small) discount, are at least 3x as fast as any other company in the area (Comcast and AT&T, both of which completely suck in this area). They have never blocked or throttled any traffic. Their representatives at the local office are even friendly and helpful. I can't wait until Charter finally takes over most of the Comcast network in my area, as many of my clients are on Comcast, which is around 25% the speed of Charter in my area (AT&T's top speed in my area is even worse). Crazy, but true.

I can actually say this on behalf of Charter

[MillerHighLife21]

About 10 years ago their service was not very good where I am. About 5 years ago that started to change. 2 years ago they called me up and just said, hey, just FYI I know you bought your own modem but we're sending you a new one for free. We just increased everybody to 60mb service (also no extra charge) and the modem you have won't work at those speeds.

Charter + Cable Card + Tivo Roamio has turned into just about the best tv/internet experience I've had. I never thought I'd say that about a cable company, but at least in the Greenville, SC area Charter does a great job.

You had me until 3 years

[Dega704]

I was actually buying this until the "for a minimum of three years" part. Why only 3 years? Why not 10 years? Why not indefinitely? How can a "Net Neutrality Activist" actually have the nerve to present that to us with a straight face? I certainly think that Charter is better than Comcast, but this looks like a publicity stunt to get their merger approved.

Re:Well its simple

[GrandCow]

So they gave you a legitimate compromise of finding a *single* other person interested to make their groundbreaking worth it to them in case you cancelled your contract at the end and leaving them in the red... and you said no?

There's a person who is wrong here... but I don't think it's the person you think it is.