FCC Shouldn't Require Separated Charge for Cable Modems, Charter Says
An FCC proposal to require cable companies to separately state a charge for cable modems is “unnecessary, legally flawed, and would be contrary to consumer interest," said Charter Communications in a meeting with staff from the Media Bureau, Office of…
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Strategic Planning and Policy and Office of General Counsel July 7. Charter “supplies and maintains modems at no additional charge in conjunction with its high-speed broadband service offering,” the cable company said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-42. “The Commission’s proposed regulation of cable modems is unsupported by the record and exceeds the Commission’s authority.” Proposals by commenters in the proceeding to establish a case-by-case complaint process should be rejected, since they would lead to regulating prices through adjudication rather than rulemaking, the company said. Requiring providers to separately state a non-zero modem price would be “non-transparent and could actively harm consumers by creating a new fee that the vast majority of subscribers would need to pay,” said the cable ISP.