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US Justice Dept Approves Charter's Time Warner Cable Purchase With Conditions (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. Justice Department has approved Charter Communications Inc's proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable Inc and Bright House networks, which would create the second-largest broadband provider and third largest video-provider. The Justice Department valued the purchase of Time Warner Cable at $78 billion and Bright House at $10.4 billion. Under terms, New Charter has agreed to refrain from telling its content providers that they cannot also sell shows online. The deal must also be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Monday he circulated an order seeking approval of the merger with conditions that "will directly benefit consumers by bringing and protecting competition to the video marketplace and increasing broadband deployment."
Marrying the least ugly sister is still marrying an ugly girl!
Townsfolk: There's a dragon attacking the city!
Dragon Patrol: That is troubling, if true.
Townfolk: You can see it flying from here! And burning! He's going to destroy everything!
Dragon Patrol: I know it seems that way on the face of it, but as yet we have no hard evidence that that's the case.
Townsfolk: Please do something, it's your job!
Dragon Patrol: Very well, we'll schedule an investigation for next week.
Townsfolk: AAAAAGH!! OH GOD WE'RE BURNING AAAAGH!
[Six months later...]
City Watch: After a thorough investigation, we have concluded that this dragon attack is really an actionable issue. Everything and everyone that could be burned already has been. And it's a good thing, in a lot of ways. For example, the dragon has given us, the Dragon Patrol, a portion of the proceeds from burning down the city down and looting its riches. We consider this case closed.
Prices will go up. Quality will go down. How else can they pay the banks and investors who are underwriting this merger? Subscriptions per capita appear to be declining for both cable TV and cable internet. Together this indicates a possible death spiral. A good reason for the banks and the investors to try to get their pay out UP FRONT.
227-3517
So, how long till the current head of the DoJ announces he is resigning his current position to join the Board of Directors of Time Warner?
The terms are the person who approved the merger then "retires" and takes a new high paid executive job at TW/Charters.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
No caps = higher base price / forced hardware rent
My price went down with the plan change that got rid of caps at Charter, and my speed went up from 30 to 100mb/s. They require you use their modem but they don't charge a fee for it. Charter hasn't been all that bad, at least by comparison to other cable companies. Hope TWC doesn't rub off on them.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
their entire monopoly areas? Comcast has a government-granted monopoly over most of Seattle, but they don't offer service to a lot of Capitol Hill or many poor or mostly minority areas. If you think cable companies are bad, imagine not even having the option of getting cable TV or Internet from them. I probably wouldn't buy from them, but it would be nice to have an option.
My new house is in the same boat. Charter's contractors want $6,500 to run a cable down my driveway (about 900 ft). I have bump poles for power all the way to the house but of course they don't want to use those. Charter will pay up to $3,000 for it so I would have to pay the other $3,500. Or I'm stuck with AT&T 18/1 service.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
Still getting laid is still getting laid. :)
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
Comcast has a government-granted monopoly over most of Seattle,
No, they don't. They have a non-exclusive franchise agreement. From the actual franchise itself, paragraph 1.4(A) on page 5:
And in paragraph 20.6:
Pretty explicit. Not a government-granted monopoly. If someone else wants to come along and meet all the requirements for the franchise, they can get one, too.
but they don't offer service to a lot of Capitol Hill or many poor or mostly minority areas.
Then your city council was remiss in not including a mandatory coverage clause in the franchise.
I've had a decent time with them, and so have my family, but they still have issues every night where YouTube, Netflix, or Hulu will randomly buffer. Mostly good, but periodic drops in performance. Starting a video stream also takes a bit to get going. I no longer have them, and I have fiber Internet and have no buffering anymore.
One annoying issue with Charter was the random monthly internet drop out. Worse is you try contacting customer support and they say your connection looks fine from their end. After 10-15 minutes of them trying to have you reboot your modem, computer, and light bulbs, they go "ohh, yeah, we can't contact your modem". WTF did you mean by "your connection looks fine" if you can't fk'n communicate with it?!
So, how long till the current head of the DoJ announces he is resigning his current position to join the Board of Directors of Time Warner?
The geek has tunnel vision.
There is more to the DOJ than Anti-trust.
[Lynch] joined the Eastern District as a drug and violent-crime prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office in 1990. From 1994 to 1998, she served as the chief of the Long Island office and worked on several political corruption cases...
In 1999, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
2001, Lynch left the U.S. Attorney's office to become a partner at Hogan & Hartson (later Hogan Lovells). She remained there until January 20, 2010, when President Barack Obama nominated Lynch to again serve as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. From 2003 to 2005, she was a member of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Hogan & Hartson has been around since 1904 and even before the merger was about as big and prestigious a law firm as you'll find anywhere in the world.
Lynch has far better options than TWC.
Lynch's office prosecuted Republican congressman Michael Grimm; prosecuted Democratic politicians Pedro Espada Jr. and William Boyland, Jr.; investigated Citigroup over mortgage securities sold by the bank, resulting in a US$7 billion settlement; and was involved in the US$1.2 billion settlement with HSBC over violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
While Lynch was US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, she supervised the investigation into senior FIFA officials from its earliest stages. The investigation culminated in the indictment of 14 senior FIFA officials and sports marketing executives shortly after Lynch was confirmed as Attorney General. For her work in the 2015 FIFA corruption case, Lynch was presented with the 3rd annual Golden Blazer by Roger Bennett and Michael Davies.
Lynch is the second woman to become Attorney General and the first African-American woman to become Attorney General. Growing up, her mother was a school librarian and her father was a Baptist minister. Lynch earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and American literature from Harvard College in 1981 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1984, where she was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.
Loretta Lynch
If you were a real geek, you'd put a small shed by the road.
In that shed, you'd put a laptop. It doesn't need power: A small, hidden UPS will do fine.
You would call this your "home," and have them install cable to it, which they will do for a nominal low cost.
Afterward, you'd string your own coax (whether RG-6 or RG-11 or 1/2" hardline or whatever) to your house, down your driveway along your "bump poles" (whatever those are).
Terminate both ends of the wire, optionally keep the shed for future reference, and call it a day.
What is wrong with you?
Kid-proof tablet..