Rutledge Meets Wheeler on Charter/TWC/BHN
As speculation mounts that Charter's deals may be OK'd, CEO Tom Rutledge met with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler about what the cable ISP said are "public interest benefits" of its buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. At the…
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Wednesday meeting, which also included FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet and Charter Communications Executive Vice President-Government Affairs Catherine Bohigian, the would-be buyer said it "discussed significant expansion of its residential network to increase broadband and video competition, $2.5 billion investment in building out its network to increase competition in the enterprise market, and the deployment of more than 300,000 out-of-home Wi-Fi access points to increase wireless competition." The filing on the meeting was posted Monday in docket 15-149, where another filing said Bohigian, colleagues at Charter, and representatives of BHN and TWC met Thursday with Owen Kendler, who has been heading the FCC working team overseeing the deals. New Charter’s commitments on broadband service for low-income households, settlement-free interconnection and broadband without usage-based pricing or data caps was discussed, Charter said. Wheeler is reportedly close to circulating an order to OK Charter/TWC/BHN (see 1603160056). A commission spokesman declined to comment Monday.