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New York Orders Charter Out of State (arstechnica.com)
Yesterday, it was reported that Charter Communications could lose its license in New York because of its failure to meet merger-related broadband deployment commitments. Today, according to Ars Technica, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) voted to revoke its approval of Charter Communications' 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable (TWC). "The PSC said it is ordering Charter to sell the former TWC system that it purchased in New York, and it's 'bring[ing] an enforcement action in State Supreme Court to seek additional penalties for Charter's past failures and ongoing non-compliance," reports Ars. From the report: Charter has repeatedly failed to meet deadlines for broadband expansions that were required in exchange for merger approval, state officials said. The PSC has steadily increased the pressure on Charter with fines and threats, but Charter never agreed to changes demanded by state officials. As a result of today's vote, "Charter is ordered to file within 60 days a plan with the Commission to ensure an orderly transition to a successor provider(s)," the PSC's announcement said. "During the transition process, Charter must continue to comply with all local franchises it holds in New York State and all obligations under the Public Service Law and the Commission regulations. Charter must ensure no interruption in service is experienced by customers, and, in the event that Charter does not do so, the Commission will take further steps, including seeking injunctive relief in Supreme Court in order to protect New York consumers." The five types of misconduct that the commission cited to support its decision include: the company's repeated failures to meet deadlines; Charter's attempts to skirt obligations to serve rural communities; unsafe practices in the field; its failure to fully commit to its obligations under the 2016 merger agreement; and the company's purposeful obfuscation of its performance and compliance obligations to the Commission and its customers.
HA! HA!
Anybody care to comment on the odds of municipalities being able to pick up some of these assets to run on their own?
wields a very heavy hammer. Frankly, I'm amazed that Charter would so flagrantly disregard them, as every other utility here takes PSC complaints VERY seriously. I guess this will keep the rest even more in line.
Charter told Ars that it plans to fight the PSC's order to sell the former Time Warner Cable system
Should charter take this to the Federal supreme court, where they will probably win, I hope NY adds a 99% revenue tax (not profit) on charter. An ACA court case seemed to say if it is a tax the state can do what it wants
I wish my state had the balls NY seem to have now in reeling in this corrupt industry/p?
Wow, a cable company failing to live up to its promises and obligations and actually being smacked hard for it? I am shocked and amazed. Which is sad.
When someone says, "Any fool can see
How's those lips doing sucking on Trumps tiny microdick? Not tired yet?
that would be awesome but highly unlikely
It's good to see these soulless corporations held to account for their bullshit. I hope NY now tries to make it easier for smaller telecomm companies to provide services to would-be consumers.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
But then he'd come back to New York from the hellhile to which he was exiled.
Most of the city has a government-granted monopoly given to Comcast and as far as I know, they haven't expanded service in years. I have a few friends that live in the Wave area, and I'm jealous of the prices they pay and the bandwidth they have.
It seems like a simple contract dispute, the merger was approved on an agreement with Charter with regards to certain obligations. Charter did not meet it's obligations under the agreement, it failed to rectify them after being given time... so the agreement is null and void. I don't see it as much of an issue for the Supreme Court.
My first thought is what does ordering out of state mean? The fiber they own, the Right-a-ways they own, any contractual monoplies they own and existing service contracts they own are property with value. Will they be able to sell these assets? If not it's a seizure of private property. Perhaps they will be allowed to continue service providing just not solicit new bussiness? Perhaps they will be allowed to lease these to another service provider?
What I might guess is that they spin off a company called "not-Charter" and then sell or lease these assets to this wholly separate company. A holding company is created to hold both Charter and "not-charter" so one company now owns both companies (like Alphabet).
Municipalities might try to fit to edge into this but how? not-charter has a competitive advantage of the customer base and existing lines. Municipalities might try to lease the lines but then they are just leasing charter stuff. They could start building out their own but things like right-aways on poles and properties will be a difficult thicket. Witness how Google fiber got screwed out of space on poles and conduits because they were not a registered telecom or lacked monopoly grants.
Ironically the thicket of regulations that might seem like limits of cable companies are lobbied for by these companies to create entry barriers. THey like paying for rights of way because it denies others. There are often state wide laws that prohibit a municipality from competing with private enterprise. Municipalities are not allowed to favor one company over another by gifting them anything (anti-donation clauses to avoid graft).
Thus charter exits, and non-charter enters. The customer's ID number on their bills doesn't even change. The profits all go to the holding company and the same share holders as before.
Cuomo moves on to the senate, and then charter donates to the campaign for his replacement. three years from Now charter buys out "non-charter".
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Gov doesn't have power to do such a thing on top of he lacks any balls to even try.
Inorite! Fuck those dumb ass people thinking they have rights, it's money that talks!
We see how stupid politicians end up being when they try to do their own job. Imagine them trying to run an ISP! ROTFL
... but it is "a humiliating kick in the crotch". I can think of a few other cable companies that deserve one.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Someone actually went to bat for us plebes. Way to go!
Then again, my 60 y/o cynical self thinks it's more like they didn't grease enough palms.
The state spelled out exactly what Charter had to do in order to be allowed to purchase Time Warner. Charter agreed to the conditions. Now, Charter is being punished for not adhering to the specific details of the agreement (and for lying and saying that they had). The state tells them to GTFO and sell back the property, per their agreement
This is exactly how this should work, and good on New York for following through.
The US would go broke, and your local military base in Buttfuck, Nowhere would shutdown. Go fuck yourselves, traitor Putin bitches.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
unconstitutional. I hate to say it, but with Trump's victory all branches above Dog Catcher belong to the the corporatists. As bad as Hilary was she wasn't 100% anti-consumer/pro-corporate, she was just a clueless rich person trapped in a bubble. The folks using Trump (and make no mistake, he's being used) are the worst sort. They'll rule against any law that gets in their way.
It's going to take 50 years to undo the damage, longer if we don't wake up.
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This is a state case in the state system. It can only go to the SCOTUS if they can get into the federal system. This requires them to show some kind of federal jurisdiction or a constitutional issue.
If they can make this showing, they can go to the US District Court. If they lose there, they go to the US Appeals Court for that district. If they lose there, they appeal to the SCOTUS (and good luck with that; they decide less than 150 cases each year out of about 7000 requests).
However, the issues at play here seem pretty clean and inside state jurisdiction. This makes it hard to come up with convincing arguments that the feds should step in. That means that any of the three federal court levels listed above might refuse to hear the case, in which case, they're baked.
Since ISPs are essentially monopoly utilities, they are watched by PSC.
Not anymore. Seattle stopped the monopolies last year. So now Wave Broadband also has a charter that covers all of the Seattle area. Unfortunately, they aren't that better than Comcast :(
Charter should also be sure to spend the money to remove ALL infrastructure that they put into place, too - see how much other companies like rolling out their own wiring, etc.
>> municipalities being able to pick up some of these assets to run on their own?
> not trying to run an ISP dipshit
Reading comprehension fail.
After 12 years of trying to get cable service 5 power poles up my road via 3 diff companies (Adelphia, Time Warner, and now Spectrum), there was some hope this March. On a whim I called the # for Spectrum I just saw on TV, the CSR says "Oh yeah, we just opened up that service area to new orders and you are the first!". "Great, Let's do it!" I said. "2 weeks....blah blah blah". 3 weeks later, no return call, so I call... "Oh, your address is un-serviceable," they say. "Three weeks ago you said I was," I reply. Unfortunately it was on a weekend, got transferred to 2 other CSRs, the last of which attempted to be helpful as he could, but still no real answers. I just wanted them to keep to their word.
Off go complaints to the Attorney General's office and the NYS Rural Broadband Commission (especially appropriate, I thought, because Gov Cuomo announced that Phase 3 was 100% successful (how could it be, I still don't have this "broadband" they are speaking of)).
Got a phone call from the Rural Broadband Commission in May explaining that the TWC/Charter/Spectrum deal wasn't part of the Rural Broadband Initiative. Great. But if we are absolutely unservicable, by the end of the year, they will make a deal available from Hughesnet (which we currently have, at 1.5mbps at best...albeit gen3 if it's called that). Ok, not ideal, but something a _little_ better (same abysmal latency but theoretically faster, still not all-you-can-eat).
Then we get a visit from one of Charter's construction/survey dept reps in late May, sees what needs to be done, and says you'll have service in Dec/Jan. Woot!
I've been carrying around and bragging about 2 letters I got around June 6, in the same envelop. One from the Attorney General, saying Charter's response to my complaint is enclosed. Charter's letter says construction will be completed in Jan 2019, but the timeline is subject to change. Yay! I have it in writing!!!!
Yeah, right. Thanks. Heard the news yesterday on the radio, and immediately knew those letters were now null and void.
Plus ca change, plus c'est les memes choses.