New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he directed...
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he directed the Department of Public Service (DPS) to investigate Time Warner Cable’s nationwide broadband outage as part of the Public Service Commission’s review of the company’s proposed takeover by Comcast (http://on.ny.gov/1phWobm). The outage,…
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which affected 11.4 million TWC customers nationwide Wednesday, is a “stark reminder that our economy is increasingly dependent on a reliable broadband network,” said Cuomo, a Democrat, in a statement Wednesday. “That is one of the reasons why I pushed for a stronger standard of review for cable company mergers earlier this year.” New York raised its state regulatory review requirements to require cable merger applicants show that a deal would be in the public interest rather than require the state PSC to approve deals unless they could be harmful to the public interest (CD March 21 p15). Observers said subsequent DPS recommendations on the merger review indicate the PSC’s review will be more aggressive than other states’ reviews (CD Aug 14 p5). The DPS investigation will also review whether the outage affected TWC’s phone service in the state, Cuomo said. DPS will also include its analysis of the outage in its ongoing study of the telecom industry in the state, which is exploring changes in the telecom regulatory landscape, Cuomo said. A TWC spokesman said “we apologize for the early morning disruption in service and we intend to discuss any of the Governor’s concerns with him as well as the many consumer merits of our merger.” The FCC is reviewing Comcast/TWC. (See separate report above in this issue.)