The State of New York has decided that they no longer want any part of one of the largest cable providers in the United States, Spectrum. New Yorkers feel that “this is pretty radical,” says Aija Leiponen, a professor of applied economics at Cornell University. “I’ve never heard of such a thing”. The State and Public Service Commission said that the merger between Charter and Time Warner Cable is not meet the required conditions. The Commission voted 3-0 on Friday to revoke the previous 2016 approval.
Regulators also fined Charter $1 million, which adds to the $2 million they were fined when the missed deadlines for upgrading their high-speed internet access in the state’s more rural areas.
Charter issued the following statement:
“In the weeks leading up to an election, rhetoric often becomes politically charged. But the fact is that Spectrum has extended the reach of our advanced broadband network to more than 86,000 New York homes and businesses since our merger agreement with the PSC.”
“I see legal ramifications, and they will take some time. I expect thorough and tedious negotiations between them, but I wouldn’t rule out a major lawsuit,” said professor Leiponen.
“The court does have some leeway on what the remedy would be, and it could be just a fine the court could order the company to expedite the expansion and fine it if it fails to do so. I would think the effort would be to get the company to move faster,” said Syracuse University law professor Shubha Ghosh. “Obviously, if Charter hasn’t met its obligations, they’ve got to correct it. But just saying you want to throw them out of the state makes no sense If you’re going to kick Charter out, who is going to take over? Charter is there, and I think you have to give them a chance to fix it.”
Behind Comcast, Charter is the second largest cable provider in the country. 2 million New Yorkers will be affected.
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