Meredith Whipple

Public Knowledge, joined by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, filed an amici curiae brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which is reviewing a New York law to make broadband internet more affordable.

Public Knowledge, Access Humboldt, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the Center for Rural Strategies, and New America’s Open Technology Institute filed comments in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s Public Notice seeking comment on a petition for emergency relief filed by the Alarm Industry Communications Committee.

Public Knowledge and the Open Technology Institute filed a Petition to Deny asking the Federal Communications Commission to stop the merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

The groups demonstrate that the FCC typically analyzes large broadband and cable mergers through the lens of distribution. If it buys Time Warner Cable, Comcast would have about a 50 percent share in the market for truly high-speed residential broadband distribution.

This would make Comcast the most dominant communications company in the United States since the breakup of the Bell System. Under its public interest standard, the FCC cannot permit a single company to have such control over the marketplace.

“The FCC needs to stop this merger. The tough questions the FCC has already put to Comcast show that the agency is skeptical that this merger serves the public interest,” said John Bergmayer, Senior Staff Attorney at Public Knowledge.