Did Time Warner Cable over-bill customers...for 15 YEARS?
One Million New Internet Users Want to Know
May 10, 2016
We ask the CPUC to postpone it's May 12th scheduled vote to approve the Charter merger until the following can be determined.
Is Charter/Time Warner Cable, "Contract" Worthy?
In 1995, the FCC signed a major agreement with all of the cable companies called the social contract, which was an actual agreement to take care of hundreds of separate cases filed against the cable companies. According to Bruce Kushnick, 32 year industry expert in the telecommunications industry, the amount of overcharging, if a customer had service from 2001-2015, is $840 per customer, amounting to billions of dollars in over-billing.
Before the Charter/Time Warner Cable merger is voted on, given the CPUC intends to hold Charter contractually obliged to meet certain conditions, they should know if Charter and Time Warner Cable fulfilled their previous contractual agreements under the "social contract." It is similar to determining a person's credit worthiness, in this case Charter's contract worthiness should be verified. If they cannot prove they have fulfilled previous contract engagements, it is cause to delay if not postpone indefinitely the vote to approve?
Specifically California would like to know:
- Did TWC/Charter stop charging customers after the social contract expired - or did they keep charging customers?
- Are TWC/Charter still collecting the fee permitted under the social contract?
- Did TWC/Charter fulfill their commitments to wire schools based on social contract?
- How much money was collected during the period of the social contract?
Massive Profits at Expense of California's Future
California and its future economic engine (children in school today) cannot wait one more minute for the digital divide to close. When we weigh the data that has recently surfaced from an annual report Time Warner Cable published in 2013, showing the cost, $1.32, to deliver a high speed Internet signal to a subscriber, and the profit margin, 97%; we are disheartened by the negligible effort the merging entities intend on making relative to closing the digital divide in California. With the cost of delivering Internet so low, Charter should be obligated to offer discounted Internet Service to all Free-and-Reduced-Lunch students in their service region,
today.
We ask the CPUC to postpone it's vote to approve the Charter merger until the aforementioned can be determined.
Take Action Now!
Email the CPUC Commissioners: ask them to postpone approval of Charter/TWC merger. California deserves to know if Charter can and will fulfill their contractual obligations(conditions). Moreover, IF CHARTER DOES NOT, what enforcement mechanisms are in place to force the execution of the
conditions in the approval order?
One Million New Internet Users
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