Charter Agrees to Infrastructure Upgrades, Statewide Low-Income Price Locks if California Approves Cox Deal

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2026 – Charter is committing to spend $275 million on network upgrades and provide new low-income plans for five years if California approves its acquisition of Cox Communications.

The companies reached settlement agreements with two parties, the nonprofit California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) and CalAdvocates, the consumer advocacy office of the California Public Utilities Commission.

Parties submitted opening briefs to the CPUC last week, and in light of the settlements both CETF and CalAdvocates asked the agency to approve the deal. The agency is the last that has to approve the $34.5 billion merger before it can be consummated.

The companies and the parties they settled with asked the agency to approve the deal at its August 13 meeting. Justice Department approval expires Sept. 15, and Charter representatives told CPUC staff in a May 13 meeting that they wouldn’t have time to close the deal if the agency waited until its Sept. 2 meeting.

If the companies miss the DOJ’s window, they’d have to pay another $2.5 million filing fee and wait an extra 30 days for the deal to be reviewed again, something they’re trying to avoid.

Charter, Cox, and the settling parties argued the agreements would ensure the deal served the public interest.

As part of both the CalAdvocates and CETF settlements, Charter agreed to offer low-income plans for participants in California’s Lifeline Pilot program, a $20 monthly broadband discount for eligible households. One of those plans, a $20 plan for 100 * 20 Megabits per second, would also be available to low-income households that aren’t part of the pilot program.

The plans would be available for five years and be open to new and existing low-income customers, addressing a fear of CETF’s that existing Charter subscribers could be blocked from the plan. The companies highlighted the $20 plan would result in free broadband for Lifeline Pilot participants, and would be faster and more widely available than Charter’s existing 50 * 10 Mbps low-income plan.

The companies also told both parties they would keep customers on Cox low-income plans on their existing plans for five years if they didn’t choose one of the new plans.

Charter said it would invest $1.5 million in advertising its low-income plans in the state.

As part of the CETF agreement, Charter agreed to provide $23 million in support to the nonprofit for digital literacy and device subsidy programs, plus $7 million to regional broadband groups to fund similar efforts.

The cable operator also committed to spend at least $275 million on network upgrades and get its California footprint to symmetrical 1 Gbps speeds within three years.

BEAD fallback?

California is one of just two states that has yet to receive federal approval on its spending plan under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.

In the event the Commerce Department can’t come to an agreement with the state on a final spending plan, Charter agreed as part of the CETF deal to apply for state or federal funds to build out to all eligible locations within its new territory. It would contribute up to $3,000 per location as part of those bids.

According to California’s draft BEAD plan, it had nearly 340,000 eligible locations and would spend most of its $1.86 billion allocation to connect them. Charter said in its brief that 5,000 of those locations were within the companies’ footprints.

Opposition

One party, The Utility Reform Network (TURN), urged the CPUC to deny the deal or impose additional conditions.

TURN argued there was no guarantee Charter would continue participating in California’s Lifeline Pilot, and that CPUC should condition the deal on the company participating for 20 years, including any successor programs the state establishes in the future. Charter said in the CalAdvocates settlement it would expand its participation to Cox’s service area, but didn’t commit to a timeframe.

The group also feared low-income households seeing price hikes after promotions ended, a worry the price locks Charter agreed to appeared aimed at addressing.

Outside of low-income households, TURN worried about affordable prices not being offered in some lower income areas. The group wanted the company to publish machine-readable pricing data, so researchers could easily track what plans were being offered in which areas of the state.

TURN also highlighted that Charter told the Federal Communications Commission that it would scrap diversity policies in exchange for its approval. In order to make good on that and comply with a California law requiring efforts to increase spending with diverse suppliers, Charter said it would publish its spending against CPUC benchmarks.

That’s the same commitment Verizon made, and the carrier had its $20 billion acquisition of Frontier approved by the agency last year.