[opendtv] News: NCTA Wants to Talk Set-Tops with FCC
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 06:19:49 -0500
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA491128.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
NCTA Wants to Talk Set-Tops with FCC
By Bill McConnell -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/4/2005 11:16:00 AM
National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Robert
Sachs has asked for a face-to-face meeting between Federal
Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell and some "technical
and business leaders" before the FCC decides whether to hold to a
July 2006 deadline for making cable operators deploy set-tops with
separate security modules and channel-surfing functions.
Separating out the security functions so they would work with boxes
other than those leased by the cable operators was intended to spur
the growth of the retail market in set-top boxes with new interactive
features, but NCTA said in a letter to Powell Monday that the move is
unnecessary. NCTA argues that "cable has fulfilled its commitment to
support the retail availability of navigation devices"--the so-called
CableCARDS--through its 2002 plug-and-play agreement."
The consumer electronics industry has argued for maintaining the
rule, pointing to what it says is cable's vested interest in
weakening the retail market competition for the boxes it leases to
customers.
NCTA told the FCC last month that the ban isn't needed to foster a
market for retail boxes and will hurt consumers through higher prices
for the new boxes.
Since being introduced over the past few months, the number of boxes
manufactured for retail has grown to over 140 devices from 11
manufacturers, NCTA told the FCC in December. The number of such
boxes deployed has grown from zero to approximately 10,000 "with the
number rapidly escalating every week," it said.
NCTA also challenged the consumer electronics makers' assertion that
cable has an interest in weakening the retail market. NCTA sent a
copy to Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Electronics Association,
asking that he join the discussion. That appears unlikely.
Shapiro had not received the letter at press time, but Jeff Jospeh,
VP, Communications, for CEA, said it sounded like "just another
delaying tactic," noting the timing of the letter just as CEA folks
were all headed out to Vegas for their big show. "The time now is for
the FCC to act, not for more discussion." he said.
The FCC previously pledged to rule by Jan. 1 on NCTA's request to
scrap or delay the rule. But agency staffers say the decision
actually will be made in the next week or two.
Since the meeting could not be convened until mid-January,
particularly given that Shapiro and many tech types will be at the
CES show in Las Vegas the early part of the month, such a meeting
would delay the FCC decision until at least the end of the month.
The FCC has already extended the separation deadline once. In 2003,
the commission agreed to delay an original Jan. 1, 2005, deadline for
the phase-in by eighteen months in order to give the cable and
consumer electronics industries more time to negotiate necessary
technical standards. At the time of the extension, the FCC held out
possibility for additional postponements.
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