Recommendation to request City Attorney to draft a resolution in support of the June 25, 2015 joint applications by Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Advance/Newhouse Partnership to the Federal Communications Commission.
33 Report from Councilwoman Mango Councilman Austin Councilmember Richardson recommendation to request the city attorney to draft a resolution in support of the joint applications by charter Time Warner Cable and advance new House Partnership to the FCC. Councilman Mongo. I'm thankful for the opportunity to address this item. I think that this will provide some economies of scale that would be beneficial to our neighbors. I think that any time that different technology companies can join together at the benefit of neighbors, it's a great thing. So I hope that will have support of this item. Thank you, Councilman Austin. Yes. And I'm also in support of this. I want to thank Councilmember Mongo for for bringing this forward. I've had an opportunity to meet with both Charter and Time Warner Cable. And based on the information that I've received from them, this is going to expand their their capacity and ability to provide services to to residents in Long Beach. Specifically, I'm concerned with some of the lower income communities and the ability to to receive broadband as well as cable television. Specifically in my district, I know the Carmelita housing development is an area that has not had the been afforded the ability to have cable television. And in my conversations with the folks from from Charter, they have assured me that they will be working to to make their services available to those residents. And so I'm in support as well. This is a good thing. Okay. Councilwoman Mongo. Thank you, Councilmember Austin, for also bringing that up. I think those are very important points that needed to be mentioned. And then also the more choice we give, the better our residents are. Would I be able to ask? I received some information from a constituent on this item specifically stating that when they chose to turn over from Charter from sorry, from Verizon to Charter, that there was a allegation that Verizon had cut their lines, the charter lines. And so if if this goes through, I want to make sure that all residents have the opportunity to choose any partner. What would the method that we would look into this be? So all these companies are now regulated under Give CA, which is the state. The state has taken over that function. This used to be a local government responsibility when it was just a charter, when it was just cable companies. And so there is a state office. We can certainly identify that for for residents that have any of those issues. We certainly don't want to have any of that type of impact to our residents, and we can identify that for you. I surely hope that it was a mistake and that no company tried to cut out other companies lines. But I think that it would be prudent for us to look into that and ensure that neighbors have those opportunities and that those costs are not burdened by the the competitor company for any mistakes made by the other company . So if someone from my office would work with the city staff on that, that would be great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Councilmember, is there any member of the public that wish to address Council on item 33? SINGH None. Members Cast your vote. Motion carries. Item 34. Withdrawn. Oops. That's right. 35. Part of consent. Are we done? No. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Got it. You'll have to queue up again. Somehow it disappears.