back to article FCC takes three-month pause to consider massive telecoms mergers

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced it's pausing before making a decision over the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable (TWC) and AT&T's gobbling of DirecTV, citing legal issues. The agency planned to announce the results of its three-month review of both mergers at the end of March, but …

  1. Mad Chaz

    " but the FCC is determined to look at all angles in the case before giving it the nod."

    And that's the rub here really. Even if everyone knows this is basically the re-construction of old telecom monopolies, the FCC as never been able to put it's foot down and say no.

    What is really needed is not to let those corps merge, but to force then to compete. It's a sad state of affairs when the argument for "we should be one corp" is that they aren't bothering to compete anyway.

  2. Eric Olson

    So TWC and Comcast are last-mile providers...

    But they wield out-sized power as they are some of the few providers who can attach that last-mile to the network or a backbone.

    They own the cooper or fiber in the ground that goes to homes and businesses. However, that copper and fiber weren't placed for internet; they were done so for cable TV. And because of all the M&A activity in the 90s when being a regional cable TV provider was good money (assisted by legislation they and their predecessors crafted in the late 70's to protect their networks), they had near national infrastructure in place to convert the signal from TV-only to the 1's and 0's we depend on for cat pictures.

    Nothing wrong with that, except those pesky cable TV laws that prevented them from being competed against in cities. Those laws made it legal (read: mandatory) for cities to offer franchise agreements giving the likes of Comcast exclusive access to the residents. Now we are in a state where one provider (maybe two in a large city) provides cable internet. The same happened in the DSL space (different means), so now most cities are left with this for internet: One cable and one DSL.

    That's it. Sure, TV can also be grabbed from satellite, both DirecTV and Dish, but they don't offer internet (and often bundle with DSL providers who haven't done an IPTV). For me, it's Comcast and CenturyLink, the Tweedledee and Tweedledum of monopolistic internet providers. The only plus side to the proposed TWC and Comcast merger is that I'm in one of the few areas they have already offered to spin off and sell to another company... so maybe I'll not have my name changed to offensive words when I call to complain yet again about channels not coming through, poor bandwidth, and the fact that HBO Go can't be used on the PS4 or Amazon Fire because Comcast is the only provider that refuses to allow their customer accounts the ability to activate it.

  3. Florida1920
    Childcatcher

    Send the lawyers home

    The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced it's pausing before making a decision over the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable (TWC) and AT&T's gobbling of DirecTV, citing legal issues.

    Never mind the legal issues. Just think what it's going to cost to reprint all our money, Federal stationery, signs and logos, not to mention redesigning the flag, when the U.S.A. becomes the United Corporations of America.

    This is not how it was supposed to turn out.

  4. PJL500

    pay to play

    Three months should be ample time for the FCC heads to secure deals with the telecom giants on transitioning to lucrative positions within their corporations when they (soon) leave the FCC.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Comcast + Time Warner Cable is...

    A bold experiment to test the theory that turd + shit = gourmet chocolate?

    (Plus I'm a DirecTV customer, and I like them. So I'd hate to see AT&T screw things up.)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Abdication of duties

    The FCC and FTC have abdicated their obligations to protect consumers from unscrupulous companies and industry monopolies. As such U.S. consumer are going to be raped even more than they are accustomed to. The FCC and FTC should be held accountable for their failure to protect the populace from the illegal and unethical business practices of Comcast and the other cable and Telco companies.

    How much evidence does the FTC/FCC need to understand Comcast's illegal behavior such as blocking international e-mail sent to U.S. subscribers, installation of unsecure hotspots in people's homes without notice that they are unsecured, illegal credit checks after people pay a $50 security deposit to prevent credit checks that lower their person's credit rating for no valid reason, having customers fired from their job for trying to reconcile Comcast over charges? How can the FTC/FCC exist if they refuse to perform their responsibilities to the public?

    1. BornToWin

      Re: Abdication of duties

      I see someone gave a thumbs down to the reality that the FTC and FCC have abdicated their responsibilities and allowed big business to exploit consumers. Anyone who does not believe this reality is in deep, deep denial so they are either clueless or part of the problem, perhaps both.

      IMO, every single cable or phone user in the U.S. should be contacting their elected reps in Congress demanding that the FTC and FCC actual perform their duties to protect consumers from the illegal and unethical business practices that Comcast and other companies employ. Failing to demand accountability from the FCC and FTC is going to cost U.S. consumers dearly. NOW is the time to speak up because it's only going to get worse if you don't.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like