The Commission noted Charter’s “persistent actions demonstrating bad faith” and said that Charter had repeatedly failed to meet deadlines, attempted to skirt obligations to serve rural communities, implemented unsafe practices in the field, and engaged in a “purposeful obfuscation” of its performance and compliance to the merger, to the Commission and to its customers.
Under the order, Charter has 60 days to come up with a “transition” plan complying with the commission’s decision and to make sure customers would not be affected.
The Commission sued Charter in May over violating the terms of the merger: the company had to deliver 100 Mbps statewide by the end of this year and 300 Mbps by the end of 2019, and build out its network to an additional 145,000 un-served or under-served homes and businesses in the state’s less densely populated areas, within four years of transaction close. The Commission said Charter missed the June 2019 target by over 40 percent, and that it stated “good cause” claims, that it was the fault of other factors. The company has therefore been ordered to pay USD 1 million to the State Treasury for missing the June milestone, bringing the total amount of payment ordered to USD 3 million. In June, The Commission told Charter to pay USD 2 million for violating terms of the merger and said it would revoke its approval of the acquisition if Charter failed to reach the revised goals.
Charter and the Commission had earlier agreed to a series of revised targets, the Washington Post reported. But when the company provided its next update in December 2017, commission officials said Charter did not deserve credit for more than 18,000 households it said it had connected, in part because many of them appeared to be located in New York City and not in a hard-to-reach, less densely populated area.
Charter said it fulfilled its side of the deal. Charter objected, saying that the commission was seeking to add new requirements the company had never agreed to and that the effort to disqualify the homes was groundless. Charter also implied that the commission’s order may have been politically motivated, coming ahead of the September Democratic gubernatorial primary.
Public Knowledge approved the move by the Commission: “All New Yorkers deserve fast, reliable broadband, and Charter’s merger commitments in New York were designed to help bring that about. With this enforcement action, it’s good to see the New York Public Service Commission taking them seriously.”
