Crazy Consumer Electronics World: Comcast and Time Warner merger promises faster internet, more VOD

After almost a month since Comcast announced its plans to acquire Time Warner Cable, the media juggernauts are finally moving forward with its case to the FCC.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable (TWC) submitted their formal proposal to FCC, spotted by Tech Crunch, explaining all its reasons for the giant cable company merger. Meanwhile, in a joint blog post the two companies also detailed all their goals including a bevy of promises to their existing customers.

Firstly the merger will mean faster internet speeds, especially for current TWC customers. As it stands now, the company stated that the most popular broadband tier for Comcast users is 25 megabits per second, while most TWC subscribers choose a 15 megabits per second plan.

With the new merger, TWC hopes to upgrade its broadband infrastructure to the faster DOCSIS 3.1 system. Comcast already uses this system and it offers speeds up to 505 megabits per second.

VOD everywhere

The two companies also plan to expand their broadband options beyond homes. Comcast hopes to add TWC's 29,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in order to build a network of 1 million Wi-Fi hotspots.

As a bonus this expanded internet will also help expand the companies' video-on-demand (VOD) and TV Everywhere experience. Comcast will extend its X1 second screen experience, VOD, and online video options to TWC customers.

Adding in Xfinity On-Demand, will also grant TWC uses with 50,000 new programming choices, when users thus far have only had about 15,000-20,000 options to choose between on TWC.

Additionally the Comcast's Xfinity TV Go apps will provide access to 300,000 on-demand offerings and 50 live streaming channels.

Monopoly?

Of course one of the biggest concerns is the possibility of a new cable provider monopoly after these two Cable companies gang up to become a giant corporation.

To help alleviate concerns the companies wrote, "Comcast and TWC do not compete against each other in any area, so there is no reduction in consumer choice in any market."

"Customers will still have the same number of video, broadband, or phone options before the deal as after it," Comcast and TWC continued. "Comcast will serve less than 30% of the multichannel video market after the transaction closes and we divest about 3 million customers."

What's more the blog post also promises to extend the FCC's Open Internet rules on network neutrality to TWC customers.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable have made a lot of promises, but before any of them can be fulfilled it's up to the FCC whether merger goes through or not.