The FCC just signaled war against data caps

The US government is about to approve Charter's bid for Time Warner Cable, and like similar mega-mergers in recent history, it's coming with plenty of strings attached. One of those strings is a prohibition on data caps, which have been a subject of frustration for thousands of broadband customers over the past year. But the Federal Communications Commission has been pretty quiet about them so far — until April 25, when it revealed a combined Charter / Time Warner Cable won't be allowed to impose them for seven years.

The FCC might not be able to turn back and impose similar restrictions on Comcast, even though the company has been the worst offender in imposing data caps recently. (Ironically, the FCC might have been able to impose that restriction had it instead allowed Comcast to buy Time Warner Cable, but here we are.) Still, it's a useful indication of what the most important regulatory agency in communications is thinking, and it will at least provide relief to the roughly 24 million customers the merged company will serve. But zoom out a little and you can see the FCC's messy reality: as other efforts fail, big, risky mergers have provided the agency with some of the best opportunities to impose reasonable consumer-friendly regulations on broadband companies.