Charter Charts Course in DC For Time Warner Cable Deal

Look for Charter to make a strong public interest pitch in Washington (DC) that it will bring a culture of no broadband caps and fast speeds to a combined Charter-Time Warner Cable deal. But you can also expect it to face pushback from the usual suspects -- anti-consolidation groups for whom bigger amounts to badder. With the announced deal, Charter wasn’t coming right out and saying the deal would create a stronger competitor to top cable operator Comcast, particularly in broadband, but that was clearly part of the argument it will make on Capitol Hill. As with the Comcast deal, the key for approval in Washington likely depends on whether the approximately 30 percent of high-speed broadband subscribers the new company says it will have is too much for a Federal Communications Commission and a Department of Justice currently focused on what they have called Internet service provider “gatekeepers.”

Charter will be pressing the points that Charter's baseline speed is 60 Mbps, more than double what the FCC has set as an aspirational target for advanced telecommunications. Another big selling point will be that Charter has no data caps, usage-based pricing or early termination fees. Charter will also stress that it has added 7,000 new positions over the past three years.