After missing the deadline to expand its network, Charter Communications and the New York State Department of Public Service have reached a potential settlement agreement.
The cable company will pay $13 million for failing to meet its requirement to build-out its cable network as required in last year's approval of Charter's acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc.
“The Commission conditioned its approval of the merger on Charter’s agreement to undertake several types of investments and other activities,” said Department Interim CEO Gregg C. Sayre. “While Charter is delivering on many of them, it failed to expand the reach of its network to un-served and under-served communities and commercial customers in the time allotted.”
According to the Department of Public Service, Charter agreed to a number of conditions required by the Public Service Commission. The agency says Charter has completed some required speed upgrades ahead of schedule, but it had only extended its network to pass less than half of the premises it was required to pass in the first year.
Charter released the following statement Tuesday morning to 7 Eyewitness news:
Charter has met and even exceeded the vast majority of our key year-one commitments in New York associated with the merger. Delays in pole-attachment approvals and make-ready by pole owners made it impossible to extend our network to the targeted number of homes in the first year post-merger. Thousands of Upstate consumers now have access to Spectrum services where approvals and make-ready have occurred, and we have a solid deployment plan to reach the thousands of additional homes in our commitment.
Charter has agreed to pay $1 million in grants for equipment to provide computer and internet access to low-income users and set aside $12 million as a security to meet its network expansion commitment going forward.
