CEA Challenges Charter's FCC Set-Top Waiver
Says Media Bureau decision is illegal and sets dangerous precedent
By: John Eggerton
Multichannel News
May 20 2013 - 12:37pm
http://www.multichannel.com/policy/cea-challenges-charters-fcc-set-top-waiver/143395
The Consumer Electronics Association Monday asked the full commission to
reconsider the Media Bureau's grant of a conditional waiver to Charter
for set-tops with downloadable security.
The FCC in 2007 instituted the prohibition on set-tops that combine
channel surfing with security. Cable ops were required to use a
removable CableCARD security add-on, a move the FCC hoped would goose
the retail market, though it conceded at the time that a downloadable
software security option would be preferable to the hardware in the long
run. It has since conceded that the ban has not spurred that retail market.
The bureau in March granted the two-year waiver with a number of
conditions, but ones CEA suggests are too aspirational to be effective.
In a petition to the FCC filed Monday (May 20, the deadline for the
challenge) CEA asked the full commission to review and, preferably,
rescind, the waiver. CEA said the bureau lacks the authority to relax
the regulations. It also argues that the waiver "establishes a basis for
Charter and other operators to assert to the Commission and to a
reviewing court that any nominally “downloadable” security system" will
do. That, CEA suggests, could severely undercut the FCC's goal of "the
commercial availability of navigation devices from manufacturers and
vendors not affiliated with cable operators
CEA argues that while Charter initially said it would continue to
support CableCARD hardware, the waiver does not require it to do so, or
to insure that its downloadable security is compatible with retail
boxes. One of the conditions is that Charter attest that it is making
"good faith efforts" to negotiate the development of a compatible
set-top box, but it does not mandate a successful resolution.
"The Bureau’s Order, like the Charter Request, deals in assumptions and
hopes rather than in facts," says CEA, referring to that and other
conditions.
CEA said the waiver "exceeds both [the Media Bureau's] own delegated
authority and the Commission’s legal authority," and sets a dangerous
precedent.
"The Commission cannot let stand this nullification of law and
regulation, without process or public comment. Unless the Commission
reviews and rescinds this Order the Bureau will have erased the core
obligation of cable operators under Section 629 to support competitive
devices, without any factual or legal finding to support this result, or
any Public Notice.
CEA representatives met with commission officials in the past several
weeks to argue that the waiver went too far--in essence giving Charter
more than it had even asked for--and that the fact that it does not
require the boxes with downloadable security also to be CableCARD
compliant--Charter argued it would be too expensive and delay the move
to digital security--will encourage others to seek the waivers and
effectively eviscerate the requirement of separating the security and
surfing functions and the goal of spurring a market in the retail set-tops.
CEA back in December asked the FCC to deny the waiver, calling its
proposal a "nominal and partial 'solution' that cannot fairly be
projected to work in the real world."
An FCC spokesperson was not available for comment on the challenge.
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Associate Professor Fax (713) 743-3927
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University of Houston
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