After net neutrality: Could Comcast's big merger be in jeopardy?

The tough regulations for network neutrality are a wild card when it comes to the $45 billion merger of the nation’s two biggest cable companies, industry observers say. On the one hand, some analysts argue that the new Federal Communications Commission regulations will eliminate many of the harms that might come from combining Comcast and Time Warner Cable, giving regulators reason to approve the deal. But if the new rules are a symptom of a larger trend at the FCC of cracking down on big companies, it could spell trouble going forward. “I think we’ve seen an FCC that has been much firmer with the broadband industry than a lot of people expected a year ago,” John Bergmayer, a senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge, said. “It shows that you have an FCC and a chairman at the FCC who is really not afraid to take on established industry [and] do what he thinks is right.”