Cogent Pushes for Interconnection Conditions on Altice Buying Cablevision

Robert Beury and various FCC Office of General Counsel and Wireline Bureau staff. The very fact Altice and Cablevision didn't talk about post-merger interconnection policies in their application "was notable," as was that they "continued to avoid the issue" in subsequent reply comments, Cogent said. Altice instead seems to be uncommitted to the emerging consensus among major U.S. interconnecting broadband ISPs, and buying Cablevision would "give it a level of bargaining leverage that its recently consummated Suddenlink acquisition did not," Cogent said. The details of Altice's interconnection policy can be worked out, but "what matters most is that it reflect an unambiguous commitment to an interconnection protocol that will ensure robust connectivity for consumers and avoid the sort of congestion and packet loss that leads directly to degraded service," Cogent said. Absent some interconnection policy, the FCC should require at least that Altice disclose its interconnection arrangements to the agency for four years while regularly reporting different interconnection performance metrics, it said. "This serves a dual benefit of giving the Commission insight ... and, like any meaningful disclosure requirement, serves as a deterrent to problematic conduct." In a statement, Altice said it "look[s] to a fair and open regulatory process with the relevant authorities in connection with our proposed Cablevision transaction, and as in all of our other territories we expect to deliver significant benefits to consumers and their communities."