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Supporting Comcast’s merger agenda
A conservative think tank with ties to corporate money and the American Legislative Exchange Council says the FCC should not reject the Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger for emotional, “big is bad” sloganeering.
Seth Cooper, a former director of the ALEC Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force and current Amicus Counsel for the corporate group made his comments about the merger under the moniker of the Free State Foundation.
The FCC’s due diligence in that examination of the deal, Cooper says, must “disregard pleas for it to reject Comcast/TWC out of hand, based on appeals to emotional incredulity or ‘big is bad’ sloganeering; Stand firm against calls that, under the guise of protecting consumers, the agency impose conditions in order to protect market rivals…; reject dragging out its review process…; and avoid the imposition of any conditions on the merger unrelated to demonstrable concerns over market power and anticompetitive conduct.”
Cooper parrots Comcast’s press releases promoting the multi-billion dollar merger, claiming it will lead to a faster transition to digital cable, faster Internet speeds via DOCSIS 3.1, and expanded wireless backhaul services.
Unfortunately for Cooper, the facts are not on his side.
As part of Time Warner Cable’s Maxx initiative, the march to digital cable in unmistakable at Time Warner. TWC Maxx-upgraded cities now get faster speeds at a lower cost than what Comcast offers, and no data caps. Both cable companies are already in the wireless backhaul market, installing fiber to cell towers to support 4G LTE broadband. But LTE-enabled towers are highly likely to already have fiber connections, limiting future growth. A merger between the two cable companies won’t dramatically change that market reality.
On the surface, I’d agree that saying a merger is bad because it involves two big companies is superficial reasoning. The merger is bad because the two companies involved suck and are known for punishing the consumer. Suppose Google decided to buy Time Warner Cable and immediately boost speeds and lower prices for existing customers. That would be a net good. Comcast will probably raise prices and institute data caps. The throttle data from sources they don’t like (torrents, Netflix). That’s not emotional reasoning. That’s based on corporate history and facts. (I don’t think it’s necessary to call them “sock… Read more »
Frankly, I am surprised Google doesn’t just buy a major cable operator. They could wire their fiber network under existing pole attachment and rights-of-way agreements, get a built-in customer base they won’t have to build up themselves, and would have one less competitor to worry about.
If Google ran a cable company like they run Google Fiber, it would be quite the embarrassment to the gouging, anti-customer way the rest of the cable industry is run.