New York’s public service commission is trying to remove Spectrum, the state’s largest TV and Internet service provider, because it allegedly reneged on commitments and has failed to properly serve customers.
The state commission has given Charter Communications, the owners of Spectrum, 60 days to come up with an exit plan while the state seeks a new service provider. The state also fined the company $3 million and said it must provide uninterrupted service during the transition period.
Charter has 30 days to contest the order, which the company said it will do. It claimed the commission’s charges were “politically motivated” and tied to the upcoming election season.
The problems that led to today’s move allegedly began in 2016, when the state approved Charter’s merger with Time Warner Cable. Charter is a communications hub for two million state residents, delivering digital cable TV, Internet services and phone service to customers.
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In its complaints, the commission said Charter missed deadlines for improving Internet speeds and has not delivered on promises it would get high-speed Internet service to rural communities, which the commission views as its most serious failing. Charter countered by claiming broadband service has been provided to 86,000 homes and businesses.
The commission said it will seek fines of $100,000 per day until the company meets its promise to extend service to households with slow or no Internet connection.
Charter is also accused of “below standard installation and construction work,” including leaving detached wires behind.
The reversal of the Charter/Time Warner Cable merger, which experts in media regulation described as extremely unusual, follows a period when Charter repeatedly disregarded the core elements that earned the thumbs-up from the state.
The state’s Public Service Commission said Stamford, CT.-based Charter has engaged in “purposeful obfuscation” of its performance and compliance obligations, the commission said.
“Charter’s repeated failures to serve New Yorkers and honor its commitments are well documented and are only getting worse. After more than a year of administrative enforcement efforts to bring Charter into compliance with the Commission’s
merger order, the time has come for stronger actions to protect New Yorkers and the public interest,” Commission Chair John B. Rhodes said in the official announcement. “Charter’s non-compliance and brazenly disrespectful behavior toward New York State and its customers necessitates the actions taken today seeking court-ordered penalties for its failures, and revoking the Charter merger approval.”
Charter pushed back in its official statement on regulators’ move. “In the weeks leading up to an election, rhetoric often becomes politically charged,” the company said. “But the fact is that Spectrum has extended the reach of our advanced broadband network to more than 86,000 New York homes and businesses since our merger agreement with the PSC. Our 11,000 diverse and locally based workers, who serve millions of customers in the state every day, remain focused on delivering faster and better broadband to more New Yorkers, as we promised.”
After Comcast was thwarted in Washington when it tried to roll up Time Warner Cable, Charter then swooped in to scoop it up and become the No. 2 cable operator in the country. The deal, valued at $60 billion, closed in 2016, ending 43 years of Time Warner Cable operating as an independent company.
