Charter, State Sign Pact to Resolve New York Broadband Spat
Charter Communications may have escaped New York state’s boot after agreeing to expand broadband to 145,000 homes and businesses entirely in unserved and underserved areas of upstate by Sept. 30, 2021, and spend another $12 million on additional broadband deployment. Friday’s submission of the proposed settlement to the Public Service Commission tees up a 60-day comment period. The PSC votes this summer.
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!
The pact could resolve Charter and New York’s spat over broadband buildout requirements from the Time Warner Cable buy. Claiming Charter violated terms of that agreement, the PSC last July revoked approval of the deal and ordered Charter to submit a six-month plan to exit the state (see 1807270049).
The Department of Public Service “estimates Charter will need to spend more than two times the amount originally estimated by the Commission as the public benefit value of the network expansion condition,” the company and DPS wrote in a cover letter to the settlement in case 15-M-0388. The PSC estimated that amount to be $305 million in its January 2016 order clearing Charter/TWC.
The 2016 order required Charter to expand to 145,000 homes and businesses. Later, the company and state disagreed whether New York City customers could be counted. The proposed settlement would require the same number but clarify none may be in New York City. Other restrictions include that Charter could count no more than 9,500 addresses within upstate cities Albany, Buffalo, Mt. Vernon, Rochester, Schenectady and Syracuse.
The new pact "remains subject to review and final action by the" commission, Chair John Rhodes said. It would require expansion to homes and businesses “entirely in Upstate” and includes “a schedule providing frequent interim enforceable milestone requirements,” Rhodes noted. “The proposed agreement will allow the parties to move forward with the critical work of expanding access to broadband.”
To allow time to review the settlement, Rhodes issued an order extending by 90 days deadlines for Charter to seek rehearing of the July 2018 order and the requirement to submit a six-month exit plan. The rehearing petition is now due July 18, and the six-month plan is due Aug. 15. Rhodes directed DPS staff prepare an NPRM.
"Charter and the Department believe that this action is an important step forward in making high-speed broadband available to all New Yorkers,” they wrote. It would resolve the disagreement “without the need for costly litigation” and “Charter will invest even more money in New York State than originally planned, bringing the educational, economic and social benefits of high-speed broadband to areas where access is often limited.” The pact “does not constitute a finding or admission of any violation by Charter nor does it constitute a penalty or forfeiture under the New York State Public Service Law,” the letter said. New York would dismiss judicial proceedings pending in the state's Supreme Court.
DPS “work in enforcing the terms of the original merger conditions was well worth the effort and sends a powerful signal of how seriously the State takes the need for universal and affordable broadband in all areas,” emailed New York Public Utility Law Project Executive Director Richard Berkley. Upstate has long lacked fast, affordable and widespread broadband, he said.