The FCC will require a low-income, low cost broadband initiative as one of the conditions on the Charter/Time Warner Cable deal, according to sources familiar with the agreement.
Charter has already pledged such an effort, so that is not a heavy lift. But it was not among the conditions FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler talked about in his statement on circulating conditional approval of the deal.
That condition will last for four years.
Also, look for the FCC to deal with the issue of cable modem pricing in the broader context of its set-top proposal rather than as a condition on the deal that New Charter break out the price of those modems. That is according to a source monitoring that element.
The FCC has asked in the set-top proposal whether it should require breaking out the price of devices, both cable modems and set-tops, on cable bills for all MVPDs.
