FCC Approves Horrible Merger, Hurting Consumers Nationwide

Bad news: According to several news reports, the FCC has voted to approve the Charter-Time Warner Cable merger.

by Mary Alice Crim

With Chairman Tom Wheeler at the helm, the agency ignored hundreds of thousands of people who urged it to block this disastrous deal. Instead of standing with the people who use the Internet, he sided with the companies that want to control it.

Here’s Where Things Stand:

Charter now rivals Comcast in size. Together the two companies will offer service to nearly 80 percent of U.S. households. In more than half of Charter’s territory, customers will have no other real option for bundled broadband and pay-TV services. Without real competition, Charter can charge whatever it wants.

And Charter has to charge more: This deal is saddling it with nearly $27 billion in new debt. To repay that, Charter will have to raise its already steep prices. This merger will hit low-income communities and low-income people of color the hardest, forcing many offline.