July 2018

New York orders Charter out of state, says it must sell Time Warner Cable system

The New York State Public Service Commission voted to revoke its approval of Charter Communications' 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable. The PSC said it is ordering Charter to sell the former TWC system that it purchased in New York, and it's "bring[ing] an enforcement action in State Supreme Court to seek additional penalties for Charter's past failures and ongoing noncompliance." Charter has repeatedly failed to meet deadlines for broadband expansions that were required in exchange for merger approval, state officials said.

USDA Invites Comments on the Implementation of the e-Connectivity Pilot Program

The Department of Agriculture invited comments on the implementation of the e-Connectivity Pilot Program established in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 on March 23, 2018. USDA is developing this pilot program to catalyze private investment and bring broadband to unserved rural areas of the country.

Nine Months Late, an FCC Oversight Hearing

The House Communications Subcommittee held a long-delayed Federal Communications Commission oversight hearing July 25. Overall, the review of the FCC was split along partisan lines. Republican representatives generally expressed satisfaction with the work of the FCC over the last nine months. Democratic representatives felt differently.  The hearing touched on a variety of policy issues, from spectrum allocation, to cybersecurity, to emergency alerts.