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[email protected] August 6, 2014 Hon. Kathleen H. Burgess Secretary, Public Service Commission Three Empire State Plaza Albany, NY 12223-1350 Dear Ms. Burgess, The country is watching New York to learn if our state regulators believe a merger between two unpopular cable operators is in the best interest of New York residents. For the first time in a long time, the Public Service Commission has been empowered to provide much needed oversight over two companies that have enjoyed both deregulation and a near-monopoly across the region, particularly for High Speed Internet service at speeds above 10Mbps. New Yorkers, like the rest of the country, consistently rank both Comcast and Time Warner Cable as some of the worst companies around.1 The PSC has the power to facilitate franchise transfers that would effectively combine the two into one giant monolithic cable company dominating the northeastern U.S., or it can reject the proposed assignment of franchises to Comcast, letting both companies know “in the public interest” means something in New York State. 1http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/05/comcast-time-warner-cable-still-have-the-angriest-customers-survey- finds/ Section 222 of the New York Public Service law2 provides the PSC with the authority to reject the application for a transfer of a franchise, any transfer of control of a franchise or certificate of confirmation, or of facilities constituting a significant part of any cable television system unless, and I paraphrase, the transfer is in the public interest.