Charter Communications has withdrawn its request to the FCC asking permission to put data caps on Spectrum accounts.
We reported back in July that Charter had asked the FCC to remove conditions of its merger with Time Warner that prohibit the cable company from implementing a data cap. In the order to approve the merger in 2016, the FCC wrote: “For seven years, we prohibit New Charter from imposing data caps or charging usage-based pricing for its residential broadband service. This condition ensures that New Charter will continue Charter’s past pricing practices and protects subscribers from paying fees designed to make online video consumption more expensive leading subscribers to stick with a traditional pay-TV bundle.”
Charter began to argue last year that it was being limited in a way that other companies including AT&T, Cox, Altice, and Comcast are not being limited. Charter even so far as to argue to the FCC that customers enjoy data caps.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai never made a final decision about the argument and the request is no longer an issue as Charter has filed a brief simply saying that the company “respectfully withdraws its petition in the above-referenced proceeding.”
The FCC followed up with a public notice acknowledging the withdrawl of the petition. In that notice, the FCC included a reminder that the conditions of the merger are in place until May 18, 2023, seven years after the closing date of the merger.