At the end of July, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration (who is running for re-election against the Democratic candidate for governor, Cynthia Nixon and the Republican candidate, Marcus J. Molinaro) moved to ban Charter Communications from New York. The state’s Public Service Commission said the internet, television and phone behemoth had failed to comply with the terms of its 2016 merger with Time Warner Cable.
“Under that agreement, the state allowed Charter to acquire Time Warner, making it the second-largest cable operator in the country, if the company agreed to upgrade or expand its broadband services in sparsely populated areas. The commissioners voted on Friday to revoke approval for that merger, effectively barring the company from continuing to operate.
The commission ordered Charter — which trails only Comcast in size — to file a plan within 60 days to find a replacement provider, without any disruptions to service. It also asked the State Supreme Court in Albany to force the company to pay additional fines.”1
Charter plans to challenge that order.
Mr. Cuomo has said the company repeatedly refused the state’s efforts to hold it responsible, “Some of these large corporations think they can get away with murder, right? Just because you’re a big corporation doesn’t mean you can come into this state and bully the consumers of this state. It’s not going to happen.” 2 But Charter called the governor’s move politically motivated, noting that Election Day is fast approaching.
Regardless, this isn’t the company’s first run in with the Public Service Commission who previously ordered Charter to pay a $2 million fine for its slow broadband rollout.
Union members who have been striking against Charter were happy with the decision calling the company, “bad players.”3
