Law 360
Margaret Harding McGill | January 29, 2016
Charter Communications is taking steps to bridge the digital divide with its lowincome broadband offering, but members of a California nonprofit said the company should go further by setting broadband adoption goals among lowincome households in the state, according to filings Friday that detail meetings with Federal Communications Commission officials.
Representatives of California Emerging Technology Fund, or CETF, met with Commissioners Michael O’Rielly, Ajit Pai, Mignon Clyburn, Jessica Rosenworcel and staffers for Chairman Tom Wheeler to discuss imposing a public interest benefit on Charter in order to gain FCC approval of its $55 billion merger with Time Warner Cable and $10.4 billion acquisition of Bright House Networks.
CETF, which did not take a position on whether the overall transaction should be approved, said a condition to approval should be that the new company have a goal of broadband adoption in 696,000 to 960,000 low-income households in California.