Charter was the only cable company allowed to buy TWC because of their track record. Both Comcast and Cox considered it, and the FCC straight up said no, they would never approve it.
The former Adelphia areas that went to Comcast got marginally better (more uniform towards product offerings in line with existing Comcast), but are still overpriced shit, and the areas that TWC got worse to match TWC's existing shittyness.
Given how TWC is a toxic shithole of a company, and Comcast is barely any different, Charter has actually made a name for themselves for being customer oriented, not short term anti-profit like the other two, and the FCC happily allowed the merger.
Charter's pricing is generally lower, their customer support is generally better, and they actually rebuild areas they buy instead of letting them rot like TWC (and also Verizon, on the teleco side).
tl;dr if the companies refuse to compete, how is any of it considered "competition"?
