Zoom Petitions FCC To Deny Charter/TWC/BHN, Citing Charter's Cable Modem Policies
Zoom Telephonics petitioned the FCC to deny Charter Communications' buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, saying Charter's modem policy sends "an important and dangerous message to other cable operators." Minus a denial, the FCC should condition any…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
approval on Charter's adopting "reasonable policies" for customers attaching modems to its system, including its no longer subsidizing or bundling the leasing of cable modems, its breaking out the cable modem rental charge on bills as a separate item, and not charging that fee if customers supply their own cable modems, Zoom said in a petition posted Wednesday in docket 15-149. According to Zoom, since June 2012 Charter hasn't allowed many subscribers to use their own cable modems on Charter's network -- and while it loosened that policy in August 2014, "it has pointedly refused to acknowledge its legal obligation to allow such attachments." Charter also has put "unreasonable technical limitations" on certifying the cable modems it will allow, the cable-modem maker said. Charter -- unlike TWC -- charges a single bundled rate for Internet service that includes a cable modem, Zoom said. While Charter said in its public interest statement that it plans to offer broadband services on a stand-alone basis as well as bundled and without modem fees, customers who use their own modems don't get a savings benefit -- thus eliminating an incentive for people to buy their own modems, Zoom said. Charter/TWC/BHN would mean even more retailer locations in New Charter's footprint, so its modem policy would "dramatically reduce retailer sale of cable modems," Zoom said. Charter didn't comment Wednesday. In a filing posted Tuesday in response to opposition to the deals (see 1511030024), Charter said Zoom's tying its complaints about Charter's modem policies to the transactions means "any allegation of preexisting harm would be transaction specific on the theory that the transaction would cause the 'offender' to grow" -- an argument it said the FCC rejected in AT&T/DirecTV. Charter also said it follows the relevant navigation device rules, and is allowed to prevent customers from using devices that could cause electronic and physical harm, and that some wireless routers integrated with cable modems have insufficient memory, "which locks up both the Internet service and the home networking functionality." Charter also said rules don't require it to include a separate cable modem rental fee on its bills, and neither the Communications Act nor the net neutrality order gives the FCC the authority to regulate cable modems.