Charter Defends NY Broadband Buildout, Protests PSC Probe

Commission orders to show cause (see 1803190046). "Although Charter is withdrawing a small number of reported network extensions based upon its investigation and review of considerations raised by the Expansion Show Cause Order, and as a natural result of certain internal processes ... Charter remains in full compliance with the Expansion Condition’s modified targets,” Charter said Thursday in docket 15-M-0388. Charter said expansion was limited by severe weather, including hurricane season, delays gaining access to utility poles and regulators' unexpected interpretations of merger conditions. Statewide, more than 76 percent of Charter applications for pole access were pending without approval for more than 45 days, and 61 percent for more than 100 days, the company said. The PSC has “no legitimate basis” to disqualify 14,522 of the addresses the ISP claimed to have passed, the operator said: The PSC didn’t show the MVPD failed to meet buildout targets, but “forces Charter to respond to a speculative future Commission order that may disqualify some of Charter’s completed network extensions, while depriving Charter of knowledge of the specific contours of the finding to which it is responding.” Charter defended its processes for ensuring compliance with the buildout condition in a separate response. The order asking Charter to show cause "rests on mistaken assumptions regarding key facts concerning Charter’s network expansion efforts in New York and a series of legal errors,” it said. “The proposals in the Order are inconsistent with the Commission’s prior orders, exceed the legal limits on the Commission’s authority, and lack the required substantial evidentiary support.” The responses are under review, a PSC spokesman emailed. The governor’s office last week threatened to revoke the operator's franchise over claims it missed buildout targets (see 1805030025).