To: California Public Utility Commission
From: Brandon Arnold, Executive Vice President, National Taxpayers Union
Re: Joint Application of Charter Communications, Inc., Charter Communications Holdings, LLC, and Cox Enterprises, Inc. for Approval Pursuant to Public Utilities Code Section 854 of the Indirect Transfer of Control of Cox California Telcom, LLC (U-5684-C)
Date: February 13, 2026
On behalf of National Taxpayers Union, the nation’s oldest taxpayer advocacy organization, I write in support of the proposed merger between Charter Communications, Inc. (Charter) and Cox Communications, Inc. (Cox). Mergers between large companies should be carefully reviewed by federal and state regulators with a narrow focus—ensuring that consumers would not be harmed by this transaction.
This “consumer welfare standard” has been and should continue to stand at the core of antitrust policy. In the case of Charter-Cox, there is little reason to believe that consumers would be adversely impacted. Indeed, in an evolving marketplace for video and broadband services, consumers stand to benefit from the economies of scale that would be achieved. It is important to note that Charter and Cox share no overlapping geographical footprints in their service area, meaning they are not competing directly for consumers. Rather, they compete with a variety of other services. For broadband internet services, we have seen the rapid deployment and expansion of services such as fiber, in-home 5G, and satellite. These options have created increased competition to the benefit of consumers. For video services, the marketplace is perhaps even more competitive with a host of streaming platforms, over-the-top live television services, satellite TV, and non-traditional rivals including on-demand streaming options like YouTube.
As cable services have lost market share to these rivals, the need for consolidation and greater efficiency has become far more pronounced. National Taxpayers Union urges you to support this merger which would promote greater competition and benefit consumers and taxpayers.