California PUC to Receive Same Comcast/TWC Info Submitted to FCC, But Uncertainties Remain
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will receive the same information the FCC receives on the Comcast/Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal and associated transactions following a legal hearing at the CPUC Thursday, but other aspects of the commission’s review remain undecided pending further action at the FCC, industry stakeholders who attended the hearing told us. The hearing, led by Administrative Law Judge Jean Vieth, was meant to clarify the scope of allowable discovery requests in the CPUC’s review of the deals and set a new schedule for the commission’s review (see 1410150092). The CPUC didn’t webcast the hearing and a transcript wasn’t available at our deadline.
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Comcast and other telcos associated with the transactions have agreed to supply much of the information sought by the CPUC and public interest groups, though “they weren’t thrilled about it,” said The Utility Reform Network Telecom Director Regina Costa. Both sides also agreed to a system for sharing the information supplied to the FCC, Costa said. The CPUC’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) and public interest groups had sought access to all documents the telcos supplied to the FCC because they want the CPUC’s review and resulting recommendations to the FCC to be based “on the most useful record possible,” Costa said. Comcast and the other telcos had resisted supplying the CPUC with all of the information the FCC sought because the agency has sought narrower reviews at the state level. Comcast had no comment.
The extent of the info the CPUC receives from the FCC’s review remains an open question because of the current pause in the FCC’s review process for Comcast/TWC (see 1410070029) and disputes over whether the FCC can have access to programming data associated with content providers, said Greenlining Institute Legal Counsel Paul Goodman. Programming data has been a “thorny” issue in the FCC’s review because content providers have objected to Comcast and the other telcos submitting the information until the FCC creates a secure system for handling that information, Goodman said. The CPUC will likely “create a clone” of the procedures the FCC creates for handling programming data, which is “quite likely” to come in the form of a specific protective order, Goodman said.
Uncertainty over when the FCC will restart its review also caused Vieth to not rule during Thursday’s hearing on a new schedule for the CPUC’s review, Costa and California Emerging Technology Fund Senior Vice President Susan Walters said. Vieth “didn’t want to get out in front of the FCC’s process,” Walters said. It’s likely that the FCC will lengthen its current delay, but if they don’t the CPUC and regulators in other states will “need to move faster so they can submit a record to the FCC,” Costa said. The CPUC’s original timeline for its review projected a final decision some time in January, but ORA and other parties are supporting a lengthened schedule that would allow for a final decision no later than mid-April. Goodman said he’s confident the CPUC will eventually agree to lengthen its timeline, which is important to allow for “a good, honest review” of Comcast/TWC and the related deals.