Proposed NY Low-Income Conditions for Altice/Cablevision Slammed
New York’s proposed conditions for low-income communities on Altice’s $17.7 billion takeover of Cablevision are “woefully inadequate,” Digital Divide Partners commented to the New York Public Service Commission, posted online Thursday. Digital Divide Partners is a U.S. Treasury-designated community development…
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entity that provides funding and financial counseling to businesses in low-income communities, said its website. Advisory staff for the Department of Public Service had recommended a condition requiring Altice to roll out a low-income plan priced at $14.95 within five years, but Digital Divide Partners said “historical data has shown this approach to have very limited impact.” The staff's 25 percent adoption target for the plan leaves 250,000 public housing residents without broadband service, it said. “Adding insult to injury, enforcement of this requirement is weak at best, requiring only that Petitioner make ‘commercially reasonable efforts’ to deploy this program.” It said the “suggested remedy of free broadband access for 40 anchor institutions will hardly make a dent in what has been a longstanding digital inequity throughout underserved communities.” Union and government officials in New York have supported the proposed conditions (see 1605310044). The PSC is to rule on the deal June 16.