Fool me twice: New York State commutes Charter's death sentence after Charter promises to stop breaking its promises

Back in September 2018, the state of New York ordered Charter to leave: the company had made a bunch of promises about investing in high-speed broadband for New Yorkers as a condition of approval for its acquisition of Time Warner Cable, and then it lied like crazy, defrauding the state and attracting a $172.4M penalty (the largest penalty ever paid by a US ISP); since then, the company has been begging New York state to commute its death sentence and give it another chance.

Even as it was promising that it would do better, Charter spent all of 2018 systematically underinvesting in its network while raising prices and returning massive windfalls to its investors -- all tax-free, thanks to Trump's tax plan, and all permitted, thanks to the FCC's commitment to "self-policing" by the telcoms industry.

Now, for some fucking reason, the state of New York has given Charter a reprieve. The company will continue to operate in New York State, will not have to divest itself of Time-Warner Cable, and will have to cough up an additional $12m, half of which can be distributed in grants to Charter's rivals to help them build out competing services. Charter is eligible to bid for the other $6m, to defray the cost of additional broadband rollouts.

Charter also promises, for realsies this time, that it will bring high-speed broadband to 145,000 households in New York. The settlement does not include any admission of wrongdoing by Charter.

New York's Public Service Commission will open a 60 day notice-and-comment proceeding soon, after which it will have the option to approve or strike down the deal. Read the rest