The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday opened up public comment on the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, which means that you have until August 25th to let the commission know your take on the deal. Comcast issued a press release shortly after public comments opened informing us that the deal will bring “considerable consumer benefits” to everyone without any loss of competition because, hey, it’s not like Comcast and TWC ever bothered trying to compete with one another in the first place.
We suspect a lot of you feel differently about this merger, however, and might want to send the FCC a different message than the ones Comcast and TWC executives are sending. For those people, we’ve created a quick step-by-step guide for giving the FCC a piece of your mind.
For those of you who are simply opposed to the merger and don’t care if the message you send to the FCC is copy-pasted, The Free Press has set up an online petition you can sign where you can ask the FCC to “take the necessary steps to block this merger.”
If you’d like to send the FCC an individual filing, though, you’ll need to take the following steps:
- Go to the FCC’s official Submit a Filing page by clicking here.
- In the box labeled “proceeding number,” type in 14-57. This is crucial because it’s how the FCC will know that you’re specifically writing to them about the Comcast-TWC merger.
- Fill in all the required personal information, including your name and your full address. You can give the FCC other information such as your email address as well, but that’s entirely optional.
- Make sure the box labeled “Type of Filing” is set to “Comment.” This was the default setting on the page when we clicked on it, but it’s still good to double-check.
- Open up a new Microsoft Word document and write down your take on the Comcast-TWC merger. Then upload that file to the FCC’s webpage by clicking on the “Choose File” button. If you don’t have Word on your computer, the FCC also accepts plain TXT files.
- You can also add a custom description in the box just to the right of the “Choose File” button that will give the FCC an idea of what your argument will be. This way the commission will know how you feel about the merger before it even opens your submission.
Again, you have until August 25th to make your voice heard. If Comcast’s past actions are any indication then it’s already lined up a bunch of “normal citizens” to tell the FCC how the merger will create nothing but sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, so people who have a different view might want to head on over to the FCC’s file submission website and let them hear about it.
