Complete Story
04/06/2017
FCC Commissioners Agree That Charter Overbuild Requirement Could Have Harmed Smaller Operators
Smaller cable providers applauded the news this week from the FCC that it is no longer requiring Charter to overbuild in areas where a broadband operator already exists. The condition that Charter overbuild in markets already served was originally imposed when Charter bought Time Warner Cable and Bright House last year.
“In all likelihood, these overbuilds would have occurred where smaller operators are serving areas that might not support two providers,” American Cable Association President and CEO Matthew M. Polka comments.
Polka also calls the FCC decision “compelling because the agency is simultaneously advancing the goal of affordable and universal broadband by requiring Charter to venture into unserved areas and by eliminating the threat of government-mandated uneconomic entry into smaller operators' markets.”
Polka thinks that the requirement undermined operators' ability to make investments. “For smaller operators, this threat was real as evidenced by the 38 ACA members who recently urged the FCC to eliminate the overbuild condition,” he says.
The decision involved a rare agreement among all the FCC commissioners, including the sole Democrat, Mignon Clyburn.
