New York AG Schneiderman tells Charter to speed up TWC's “abysmal” internet service following company's rebranding of TWC/Charter as Spectrum
The ink is barely dry on Charter's massive acquisition of Time Warner Cable — a deal that just formed the nation's second-largest cable company …
Context & Ripple Effects
Charter's acquisition of Time Warner Cable cleared its final regulatory hurdle in March 2016, when FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a draft order approving the Charter-TWC deal — forming the nation's second-largest cable company. Weeks later, the combined company rebranded itself as Spectrum, putting a single consumer-facing name on the merged network.
That rebrand is exactly what drew New York AG Eric Schneiderman's public rebuke: he told Charter to speed up the 'abysmal' service it inherited from TWC now that it wears the Spectrum name. The warning proved prescient — Schneiderman later sued Charter for advertising speeds it allegedly couldn't deliver, and the saga ended in a $174.2M settlement over speeds said to run 80% slower than advertised.
First-order effects
- Charter/Spectrum faces immediate political pressure in its largest media market: the AG is publicly tying the fresh Spectrum brand to TWC's legacy network performance, raising the reputational cost of the rebrand.
- New York subscribers get a named state enforcer demanding speed upgrades, converting what was a customer-service complaint into an official accountability track.
Second-order effects
- State regulators gain a template for holding acquirers to post-merger promises — the NY Public Service Commission later voted to revoke approval of the 2016 Charter/TWC merger over unmet broadband buildout obligations, forcing Charter into a 2019 expansion settlement.
- Rival ISPs selling into New York now compete against a market where advertised-speed claims carry litigation risk, pressuring the whole sector's marketing practices.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, broadband merger approvals stop being one-time green lights and become enforceable, revocable commitments — shifting leverage from federal deal reviewers to state AGs and utility commissions.
- Speed-advertising itself becomes a regulated claim: the lawsuit-to-settlement arc suggests ISPs can no longer treat 'up to' marketing numbers as legally safe language.
The trend: Broadband mergers are being recast by state regulators as ongoing, enforceable commitments rather than approved-and-done deals, with advertised speed claims emerging as a new enforcement front.