Charter promises Trump a broadband push, but no extra Internet connections

Enlarge / President Donald Trump and Charter CEO Tom Rutledge. (credit: White House)

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge met with President Donald Trump today, and he made a splashy promise to "invest $25 billion in broadband infrastructure and technology in the next four years."

But Charter, the second biggest US cable company after Comcast, was already planning broadband expansions during the Obama administration. When Charter purchased Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks 10 months ago, it agreed to a merger condition requiring it to bring 60Mbps download speeds to an additional two million customer locations.

The spending Charter promised Trump today won't guarantee broadband access for any additional customers beyond what the company already committed to during the Obama years.

Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments