Chairman Pai’s Response to Rep. Brindisi Regarding Affordable and Reliable Broadband

On January 25, 2019, Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D-NY) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai with concerns about Charter Communications. Rep Brindisi asked:

1. How does the FCC intend to monitor and enforce the 2016 requirement that Charter expand high-speed broadband to 2 million new customers?
2. As of January 2019, how many customers of the needed 2 million has Charter brought access to?
3. Should Charter not meet the conditions of the 2016 FCC agreement by the 2021 deadline, will the FCC commit to immediately revoking the agency's approval of the merger?

On Feb 27, Chairman Pai replied saying the FCC:

1. Required Charter to deploy high-speed broadband to two million additional customer locations no later than May 2021 and meet interim annual broadband deployment obligations leading up to that date.’ To comply with the condition, Charter has been required to provide two reports per year that an Independent Compliance Office then reviews.
2. May extend the conditions under the Order until completion of the required deployment and require a 5% increase in the yearly deployment obligations.
3. May impose other appropriate sanctions and remedies under applicable law, including a monetary forfeiture.