Condition Would Drive Charter to Overbuild Areas Weak on Competition, Clyburn Says
Requiring Charter Communications to build out its broadband network into competitors' footprints likely would prompt it to overbuild where competition is weakest, rather than in unserved communities, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in a statement Monday, concurring with Chairman Ajit Pai…
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and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly on the order eliminating the overbuild condition (see 1704030039). The overbuild requirement -- 1 million new broadband internet access service deployments in locations where another BIAS provider operates within five years of closing on the buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks -- doesn't fix a transaction-specific harm and isn't in the public interest, the FCC said in its order, agreeing with petitions for reconsideration filed by American Cable Association and NTCA (see 1606100043). In a statement, O'Rielly said the item "rightfully opens the door to the Commission scrutinizing other objectionable or questionable conditions in this transaction and others." O'Rielly said the FCC's review of Charter/TWC/BHN "did not comport with an acceptable mechanism to consider a merger transaction." Clyburn said she's "concerned" New Charter would end up the sole BIAS provider in those overbuild markets: "By removing the overbuild condition, we at least give New Charter the freedom to serve more unserved communities." Charter didn't comment on whether it had begun its BIAS buildout. The FCC decision to undo the overbuild condition of Charter Communications is “a big step toward restoring faith in the merger review process,” said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., in a statement. “Merger conditions should not be used to make an end run around the rule-making process to achieve unrelated policy goals.” In pushing for broadband deployment, “we should focus on targeting service to areas that are truly unserved, not attempting to manufacture competition through government mandated buildout,” she said. In a tweet Monday, House Commerce member Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said the order was a "common-sense decision ... to advance broadband policy that prioritizes Americans w/ no access." Still pending before the FCC are petitions for reconsideration by the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Zoom Telephonics (see 1606100043).