Charter won’t have to compete with other cable companies now

Federal regulators are letting Charter out of a requirement that would have forced it to compete with other broadband providers and possibly cut prices.

The decision relaxes one of the conditions imposed on Charter when it absorbed Time Warner Cable and represents another sign that the country’s telecom cop is tilting in favor of the industry it monitors.

Charter Communications had agreed to extend its network to areas where there is already a broadband provider. This requirement was enacted because most US households don’t have a choice for highspeed home internet. Greater competition could lower prices.

But smaller cable companies worried about that competition and asked the Federal Communications Commission to revisit the requirement. Under a new

regime, the FCC said Monday that Charter can instead build in areas where there isn’t highspeed internet already.

The agency’s new chairman, Ajit Pai, says getting more Americans online — what’s called “closing the digital divide” — is important to him. He wants to cut regulations to encourage broadband companies to expand their networks and doesn’t see the point of mandating a network buildout where there is already service. The reversal is the latest in a slew of measures at the FCC that benefit the telecom industry.

Pai said in a statement Monday that the previous buildout requirement had not been in the public interest and was “against the goal of promoting greater Internet access for all Americans.” (AP)