FCC OK of TWC’s Buy of Insight Communications Seen Within Weeks
The FCC is likely to approve Time Warner Cable’s $3 billion purchase of Insight Communications, agency and industry officials told us last week. They said career agency officials from the Media and Wireline bureaus are working on reviewing the deal, and seem poised to soon recommend it be approved. The forthcoming order would waive a rule barring common LEC/cable system ownership in the same franchise area, the industry and commission officials said. They said the companies, though, may not get the order approved before the end of this year (CD Dec 5 p18), as they have asked be done.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Approval in January seems more likely than an FCC OK in December, agency and industry officials predicted. The deal may be approved on delegated authority by the two bureaus, so FCC members would not need to vote on it, they said. But the office of Chairman Julius Genachowski does not appear to have decided yet if it will seek a vote on the cable system combination, the officials said. The commissioners’ offices aren’t involved in the deal review -- in keeping with standard practice for transactions which may not be approved by FCC members -- and may not get involved later, agency officials said. Spokespeople for the two bureaus declined to comment.
The waiver of Section 652 of the Communications Act would let Time Warner Cable and Insight operate cable and phone systems in the same franchise area, commission and industry officials said. They noted that the agency has previously approved waivers of the Section 652 rule. The NCTA in June petitioned the agency to issue a declaratory ruling to clarify that the section doesn’t bar cable-CLEC deals. The agency doesn’t seem poised to act soon on the petition (http://xrl.us/bmk75v), an industry lawyer noted. Cities and public utility commissions opposed the request (CD Aug 24 p8) in comments in docket 11-118 (http://xrl.us/bmk75r).
Local franchising authorities haven’t opposed FCC approval of the purchase, agency and industry officials noted. No entity filed comments in the docket on the deal -- 11-148 (http://xrl.us/bmk75x). Insight had almost 650,000 subscribers on June 30, according to supplemental information in the docket (http://xrl.us/bmk76d).
Telecom competitors in areas where Insight sells service include AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier Communications and Windstream, the cable operator and Time Warner Cable said in the most recent filing in the docket. “The rates that TWC offers for telephone service to customers in the areas where its network overlaps with Insight network are the same rates that TWC offers in the larger geographic area in the vicinity of Columbus, Ohio.” The filing last week (http://xrl.us/bmk759) noted that in approving five years ago the purchase of bankrupt Adelphia Communications by Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the FCC said that any harm by eliminating overbuilders “was ‘not sufficient to create a material risk of public interest harm.'”