The announced merger of Charter Communications and Cox Communications isn’t likely to cause any immediate changes in high-speed internet availability in Isle of Wight or Surry counties, a Charter official told the Times.

Charter, which sells its cable TV and internet services under the Spectrum brand and is the dominant internet service provider in Isle of Wight, said in a May 16 news release it had entered into a $34.5 billion “definitive agreement” with Cox, whose territory includes the Norfolk-Virginia Beach metro area and the Peninsula.

Cameron Blanchard, a Charter spokesman, told the Times that Charter’s territory does not overlap with Cox’s.

Charter, which publicly trades on Nasdaq under the “CHTR” ticker symbol, has more than 30 million broadband internet customers across 41 states while Cox, as the largest private broadband company in America, has roughly 6.5 million residential and commercial subscribers across 30 states, according to the companies’ websites.

Charter’s service area includes most of Isle of Wight County and the towns of Smithfield and Windsor, Blanchard said.

The company is wrapping up a regional fiber optic internet buildout on track to be completed this summer that will extend service to rural locations in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the city of Suffolk not already served by cable modem. Charter was awarded 1,839 Isle of Wight “passings” through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, or RDOF, a federal program that allows internet service providers to compete for the right to provide service to specific census blocks, and was awarded an additional 1,378 passings through the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative, or VATI, which in 2022 contributed $22.7 million in state funding toward the buildout. A passing refers to any physical home or business address that can be connected to Charter’s network.

Charter also has a minimal presence in Surry County, which in 2021 partnered with Prince George Electric Cooperative subsidiary RURALBAND to achieve universal fiber-to-the-home availability.

According to The Washington Post, Charter is the second-largest U.S. cable provider behind Comcast. The Post reported that during a conference call with analysts, executives said the merger would better position the combined company to compete with wireless providers AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and DirecTV.

Charter’s stock rose to a year-to-date high of $427.25 per share by the close of business on May 16 following the announced merger and was trading at $415.44 as of May 21, according to the Wall Street Journal.

According to Charter’s news release, Charter will acquire Cox’s commercial fiber and managed IT and cloud businesses, and Cox Enterprises will contribute its residential cable business to Charter Holdings, an existing subsidiary of Charter.