Daniel Frankel

Charter Communications says a provision buried deep within the Federal Communications Commission’s proposed set-top regulation would, if adopted, require it to charge a modem fee. “We’re the only major broadband provider that doesn’t charge this fee, because we view modems as part of providing a superior broadband service, and it makes us a stronger competitor by allowing us to offer better deals to our subscribers,” Charter said.

“Deep within” the FCC’s “Unlock the Box” proposal, the company added, “is a provision that has the potential to affect millions of consumers, requiring all internet providers to charge a modem rental fee and include it as a distinct line item in their customers’ bills, even if that company (like Charter) doesn’t currently charge a modem fee.” The blog post followed an ex parte filing rendered earlier by Charter, in which it said the FCC proposal is in direct conflict with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks merger conditions that require it to supply free modems.

Delivering some hard subscriber data to indicate why Google Fiber is reportedly considering a pause, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said that the service had only 68,715 video subscribers at the end of June. “For those keeping score at home, that’s a little less than seven one hundredths of 1 percent of the US video market,” Moffett said.

The numbers come via a filing with the US Copyright Office – necessary for maintenance of a compulsory license for broadcast signals. With Google Fiber eschewing the release of customer metrics, the tiny market share in pay-TV services hints at the diminutive size of the overall business, and explains why the division has laid off half its staff and has stopped deploying its lines in new markets. Using a conservative estimate that only around 15 percent of Google Fiber subscribers also take video, Moffett estimated that the service would have had 453,000 broadband customers as of the end of June, representing less than one half of 1 percent of total US ISP customers.

Cable One has responded to a customer complaint about its broadband usage caps with a three-page letter explaining why the data limits are crucial to the performance of its network and keeping customers. "Managing Cable One’s network for optimal performance is crucial for providing a reliable service," the company said. "Establishing reasonable data plans is an important part of that process."

Cable companies are required to respond to customers who render gripes at the Federal Communications Commission’s online Consumer Help Center. CableOne’s usage caps range from 300 gigabytes for a 100 Mbps service to 500 gigs for its $200-a-month gigabit-speed package. As the company explained in its letter, it no longer charges customers for overages. But subscribers get a letter (a polite one!) if they go over for one month and are automatically bumped to the next higher tier if they exceed their usage limit for three consecutive months.

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry has called on Comcast, AT&T and Google Fiber to meet and discuss a solution to their local pole-attachment issues. Just as it has in Louisville, Kentucky, Google Fiber is trying to circumvent cumbersome rules for attaching fiber-optic cables to local telephone poles by introducing an ordinance to city government called “One Touch Make Ready.”

AT&T, which is battling Google over the same ordinance in Louisville alongside local cable franchise holder Charter Communications, is siding with Comcast in Nashville. In Nashville, Mayor Barry isn’t taking sides. But she has called on the top executive for the company that owns and operates 80 percent of the local utility poles – Nashville Electric Service President and CEO Decosta Jenkins – along with Metro Department of Law Director Jon Cooper to get the three sides in a room together. Google Fiber said it can’t wait around for months while AT&T and Comcast deploy technicians to make room for Google fiber-optic cables on local poles. AT&T and Comcast reps, meanwhile, make arguments based on safety and liability concerns.

CableLabs' recently developed DOCSIS 3.1 spec is more than capable of delivering average downstream speeds far above 1 Gbps, but its ubiquitous deployment is still several years away. That means cable companies will have to rely on the current DOCSIS 3.0 parameters in what amounts to a marketing arms race with Google and AT&T's fast-proliferating fiber networks. Is this even possible? Do these guys have something else up their sleeve, like maybe offering FTTP to the finite number of subscribers who do order 1 Gbps service?

Culling through all the various due diligence and Securities and Exchange Commission filings, SNL Kagan released what is perhaps the clearest numerical snapshot yet of what a combined Comcast-Time Warner Cable would look like, post-merger.

The newly merged giant would control nearly 29.1 million US residential video subscribers, after Comcast divests 3.9 million pay TV customers in the joint venture with Charter Communications known as SpinCo. The wedded Comcast-TWC would house about 29 percent of the US pay TV market, just under the Federal Communications Commission's unofficial 30 percent limit.

The combined company would also control 27.9 million residential fixed broadband customers, accounting for nearly 36 percent of the market, and 13.4 million residential voice customers. In terms of business customers, the behemoth would have around 900,000 video customers, 1.7 million fixed broadband clients and 1 million voice subscribers.