April 2016

Based on imposed conditions that will ensure a competitive video marketplace and increase broadband deployment, an order recommending that the Charter/Time Warner Cable/Bright House Networks transaction be approved has circulated to the Commissioners. As proposed, the order outlines a number of conditions in place for seven years that will directly benefit consumers by bringing and protecting competition to the video marketplace and increasing broadband deployment. If the conditions are approved by my colleagues, an additional two million customer locations will have access to a high-speed connection. At least one million of those connections will be in competition with another high-speed broadband provider in the market served, bringing innovation and new choices for consumers, and demonstrate the viability of one broadband provider overbuilding another.

In conjunction with the Department of Justice, specific Federal Communications Commission conditions will focus on removing unfair barriers to video competition. First, New Charter will not be permitted to charge usage-based prices or impose data caps. Second, New Charter will be prohibited from charging interconnection fees, including to online video providers, which deliver large volumes of Internet traffic to broadband customers. Additionally, the Department of Justice’s settlement with Charter both outlaws video programming terms that could harm online video distributors (OVDs) and protects OVDs from retaliation– an outcome fully supported by the order I have circulated. All three seven-year conditions will help consumers by benefitting OVD competition. The cumulative impact of these conditions will be to provide additional protection for new forms of video programming services offered over the Internet. Thus, we continue our close working relationship with the Department of Justice on this review. Importantly, we will require an independent monitor to help ensure compliance with these and other proposed conditions. These strong measures will protect consumers, expand high-speed broadband availability, and increase competition.

The trans-Atlantic debate over digital privacy rights versus the surveillance needs of intelligence agencies was put under a spotlight April 25, as President Barack Obama called for continued access by law enforcement officials to thwart terrorism, while some European privacy advocates urged greater restraint. “I want to say this to young people who value their privacy and spend a lot of time on their phones: The threat of terrorism is real,” President Obama said, speaking at a trade show in Hanover, Germany. “I’ve worked to reform our surveillance programs to ensure that they’re consistent with the rule of law and upholding our values, like privacy — and, by the way, we include the privacy of people outside of the United States,” he added.

President Obama’s message comes at a sensitive time, as cities like Brussels and Paris are still recovering from recent terrorist attacks. But his words are unlikely to slow down European efforts to expand people’s control over their digital lives. Europe is at the heart of a global debate over the way companies like Google and Facebook, as well as national intelligence agencies, handle people’s digital data. Some regulators in the 28-member bloc have called on companies and governments, particularly that of the United States, to comply with the region’s tough privacy regulations.