Plug-and-Play Action May Be a Way Off at FCC
The FCC won’t act quickly on two-way plug-and-play rules (CED Aug 28 p1), judging from Chairman Kevin Martin’s comments Tuesday at CES and other evidence, industry officials said.
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In his CES appearance Tuesday, Martin defied months of industry speculation that he would use the occasion to outline his stance on the controversial issue, saying little about it. In a Q-and-A session with CEA President Gary Shapiro, Martin highlighted efforts by the cable and CE industries to deploy plug-and-play devices. The chairman didn’t get into policy specifics.
Martin has given the other commissioners no indication that he wants quick action on plug-and-play, an FCC official said. No order on the subject has been circulated on the FCC’s eighth floor, agency sources said. The commissioners are concentrating on higher priorities, an official said. Some commissioners want the cable and consumer electronics industries to work out a technology solution, the source said. Cable and consumer electronics officials had expected an order to have been circulated on the FCC’s eighth floor months ago and to have been voted on by now. CEA and NCTA declined comment.
But momentum seemed to be derailed by lobbying in October and November by the MPAA, the NCTA and others that oppose government intervention in the market, said industry and FCC officials. Meanwhile, the cable and CE industries don’t appear to have made much progress in negotiations on plug-and-play specifications, the officials said. The complexities of coming up with a standard may also account for the FCC’s inaction, sources said. The industries “can’t seem to get together,” said communications lawyer and former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley: “It would be good to see an industry solution in this area, but I don’t know if that will be forthcoming anytime soon… It’s complex.”
Martin appears to hold out some hope cable and CE can come up with a solution, said people who heard him speak. “At CES, the chairman was still pushing the two sides to agree,” said Stanford Group analyst Paul Gallant. “But if that doesn’t happen, the commission is apparently going to step in. That raises the stakes for the cable and consumer electronics companies who are already signing deals.”