Charter/TWC/BHN Public Benefits Would Happen Regardless, Dish Says

Promised public benefits of Charter Communications' buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable would happen regardless of those $89.1 billion deals going through, and might actually slow down BHN's technology upgrades, Dish Network said in an FCC filing posted Monday in docket 15-149. For example, Dish said, BHN's all-digital conversion was expected to happen sooner than the 30 months Charter has cited. Similarly, Charter's pledge of a minimum 60 Mbps broadband service to BHN customers contrasts with BHN being "well-positioned to offer a higher level of speed tiers to customers whether or not the merger is consummated," Dish said. While Charter says it, BHN and TWC will join the Cable WiFi consortium, BHN and TWC already are members and Charter shouldn't need the takeover "to push it to join," Dish said. In a statement Monday, Charter said the "many commitments, including to provide faster broadband service without data caps or modem fees, establish industry leading interconnection policies, offer advanced video services, increase competition in the SMB and enterprise business markets, and return thousands of overseas jobs to the U.S., puts this transaction squarely in the public interest.” Dish is one of the most vociferous opponents of Charter/TWC/BHN (see 1511230031).