Unless the inevitable widening schism in programming costs that would follow Charter Communications' purchases of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable can somehow be addressed, the FCC should reject the deals, Incompas said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-149 on a meeting Tuesday at the group's conference in San Francisco between Gigi Sohn, counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Angie Kronenberg, Incompas general counsel. Incompas said it raised red flags about how the deals might affect the broadband market's competitive landscape. Charter's application lacks any kind of analysis of what the transactions would do to broadband competition and to the "intertwined markets" for linear video and broadband, Incompas said. Consumers prefer ISPs that also offer multichannel video services, but rising video costs are a big hurdle for small- and mid-sized ISPs interested in building out their broadband networks, Incompas said. Charter's and TWC's larger scales post-deals would mean lower programming costs for New Charter relative to potential broadband competition, resulting in "a substantial barrier to future broadband investment and competition in (New Charter's) footprint," the group, formerly known as Comptel, said.

Unless the inevitable widening schism in programming costs that would follow Charter Communications' purchases of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable can somehow be addressed, the FCC should reject the deals, Incompas said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-149 on a meeting Tuesday at the group's conference in San Francisco between Gigi Sohn, counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Angie Kronenberg, Incompas general counsel. Incompas said it raised red flags about how the deals might affect the broadband market's competitive landscape. Charter's application lacks any kind of analysis of what the transactions would do to broadband competition and to the "intertwined markets" for linear video and broadband, Incompas said. Consumers prefer ISPs that also offer multichannel video services, but rising video costs are a big hurdle for small- and mid-sized ISPs interested in building out their broadband networks, Incompas said. Charter's and TWC's larger scales post-deals would mean lower programming costs for New Charter relative to potential broadband competition, resulting in "a substantial barrier to future broadband investment and competition in (New Charter's) footprint," the group, formerly known as Comptel, said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Petitioners challenging the net neutrality order threw a “Hail Mary” in arguing the FCC was statutorily precluded from reclassifying broadband access as a Title II telecom service under the Communications Act, said Steptoe and Johnson attorney Markham Erickson. He represents Incompas (formerly Comptel), Level 3 and Netflix in defending the order. Erickson spoke at a Davis Wright net neutrality seminar Wednesday after the Comptel Plus conference.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Petitioners challenging the net neutrality order threw a “Hail Mary” in arguing the FCC was statutorily precluded from reclassifying broadband access as a Title II telecom service under the Communications Act, said Steptoe and Johnson attorney Markham Erickson. He represents Incompas (formerly Comptel), Level 3 and Netflix in defending the order. Erickson spoke at a Davis Wright net neutrality seminar Wednesday after the Comptel Plus conference.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Fiber deployment to customers is edging up due to market forces, and could expand more rapidly if government authorities would lower obstacles, said Comptel Plus panelists. Fiber to the Home Council President Heather Gold said the percentage of homes passed by fiber is only about 25 percent, but should approach 70 percent within five years.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Fiber deployment to customers is edging up due to market forces, and could expand more rapidly if government authorities would lower obstacles, said Comptel Plus panelists. Fiber to the Home Council President Heather Gold said the percentage of homes passed by fiber is only about 25 percent, but should approach 70 percent within five years.

SAN FRANCISCO – The FCC has “a lot more competition policy to go” and needs the support of Incompas and its members, as well as their customers' stories, said Gigi Sohn, counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler at the Comptel Plus meeting Tuesday. “We're going to rely on you,” Sohn said, providing an overview of the Wheeler agenda on the incentive auction, special access, IP technology transition, broadband deployment, Lifeline, USF and video reform. “Keep telling those stories and we'll get more and more people on the side of competition and bigger, faster broadband,” she said.

Nearly every small and/or new multichannel video programming distributor has difficulty obtaining reasonably priced video programming, with a large minority of them seeing retransmission consent fees more than doubling in recent years, according to a 2015 video competition survey put out Tuesday by NTCA and Incompas, the recently renamed Comptel (see 1510190061). The survey is from Networks for Competition and Choice -- made up of Incompas, ITTA, NTCA and Public Knowledge -- which are jointly pushing for video rules changes. The groups worked together to oppose now-abandoned Comcast/Time Warner Cable, and now are focusing on the video marketplace, members told us. "It sort of grew out of everyone noticing we're all saying the same thing and experiencing the same difficulties," said Jill Canfield, NTCA vice president-legal and industry.

SAN FRANCISCO – The FCC has “a lot more competition policy to go” and needs the support of Incompas and its members, as well as their customers' stories, said Gigi Sohn, counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler at the Comptel Plus meeting Tuesday. “We're going to rely on you,” Sohn said, providing an overview of the Wheeler agenda on the incentive auction, special access, IP technology transition, broadband deployment, Lifeline, USF and video reform. “Keep telling those stories and we'll get more and more people on the side of competition and bigger, faster broadband,” she said.

Net neutrality has been key to Internet and telecom startups, said EarthLink CEO Joe Eazor and AngelList Chief Operating Officer Kevin Laws at the Sunday opening session of ComptelPlus in San Francisco. “It's hard to overstate the importance,” Eazor said, responding to a question about net neutrality and “interconnection at the edge” from moderator Chip Pickering, Comptel president (the group changed its name to Incompas Monday). Laws said net neutrality has been critical for most of the startups on AngelList, which helps new companies obtain seed money from “angel investors.” Laws said one of his startups is constantly opening new stores, all of which need Internet connections: “The open Internet is essential for our customers to serve their customers better.” Pickering lauded the FCC net neutrality and IP/tech transition orders, which he said were part of a competition agenda that Comptel wants to sustain and strengthen. He welcomed agency efforts to address concerns about Bell rates and practices in special-access business services, including the investigation the Wireline Bureau announced Friday into terms and conditions that rivals say “lock up” competition (see 1510160060). Pickering said he's hopeful the commission will act on special access within six to 12 months. Eazor said EarthLink is riding a new wave of Internet growth that he said tripled IP traffic over the past four years and is expected to triple it again during the next three years. EarthLink is in various lines of business, but its core is managing “network services,” often in the cloud, including to retailers with diffuse locations, he said. Laws said AngelList already has helped various startups, including Pinterest and Uber, gain access to more than $200 million in initial funding.