FCC Likely to Tackle Charter/TWC/BHN Conditions by Year-End
The FCC is likely to act this year, perhaps soon after Election Day, on Charter Communications' petition to end two years early some conditions put on it from its Time Warner Cable/Bright House Networks deal (see 2006180050), stakeholders told us. The commission isn't likely to let the issue sit around because Charter and the parties that raised concerns (see 2007230015) are entitled to answers, said a lawyer with an interested client. He said Charter is likely to make a concerted push to get this done before 2021, though that could be shortsighted, because if the White House changes hands, the company might be better off with the conditions as a shield against other regulation.
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A lawyer for a party in the proceeding said Charter petitioning two months before the FCC said it would entertain such a request seemed to point to it hoping to get approval even before Election Day. The company and the regulator didn't comment Thursday.
Acting this year would make sense given how quickly the agency sought comments after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the interconnection condition and the ban on usage-based pricing conflicts with the recognition in the FCC's net neutrality rollback that usage-based pricing is a consumer boon, emailed Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation senior fellow. FSF backed Charter's petition. Since the cable operator is singled out among ISPs for restrictions while video competition flourishes, it makes "plenty good sense" to act before Commissioner Mike O'Rielly's term concludes, Cooper said. Pai and O'Rielly opposed the usage-based pricing condition, he said.
Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld emailed that FCC action soon wouldn't be surprising. "This is the sort of thing Pai is likely to want to get done before the year ends," he said. PK opposed Charter's petition. A lawyer who represented a client involved in the deal proceeding said it seems likely Pai would be inclined to grant relief following the election, before year-end. That's given Pai's dissent from the conditions.
The 2016 Charter/TWC/BHN order said the conditions were to be in effect for seven years. If Charter petitioned after the fourth anniversary to shorten the data caps and interconnection conditions, the Wireline Bureau would seek comment and rule by the fifth anniversary. That will be in May.