A nonprofit that’s had some encryption concerns wants the FCC to “act...
A nonprofit that’s had some encryption concerns wants the FCC to “act quickly to adopt final rules” for cable operators to scramble the basic tier “if it appears that Boxee and other similarly situated parties have had the opportunity to…
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make their case.” Encryption rules should “strike the appropriate balance between keeping consumers who have purchased existing equipment whole, while simultaneously allowing for a swift transition to new technology,” Public Knowledge said. Makers of consumer electronics using clear QAM unencrypted cable signals and lacking CableCARD ports to get scrambled shows have opposed encryption. “There are real benefits associated with the conversion of cable to digital,” an official of the nonprofit reported telling aides to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “Maintaining clear-QAM forever cannot be the only possible solution.” The cable and CE industries “ideally” “would come to a mutually acceptable transition plan” but “in the absence of such an agreement, the Commission must make a determination that reasonably balances the above considerations,” PK said. With no AllVid rules yet, which Public Knowledge wants the commission to propose and which CE companies seek, the agency “should consider the importance of facilitating new technologies attached to cable systems in the manner envisioned by Congress in the adoption of Section 629” of the Telecom Act, PK said. “The Commission has repeatedly observed that these devices can provide a valuable incentive to consumers to adopt broadband, can provide much needed competition for video-related services, and can vastly improve the user experience.” In issuing encryption rules, the Media Bureau may also start such a proceeding on ways to standardize home-networking ports on set-tops. The agency should use the same criteria applied to low-income households getting government-subsidized phone service to determine if they can get set-top boxes that cable operators pay (CD Feb 29 p18) for in encrypted, all-digital systems, the group said. Its ex parte filing was posted Tuesday to docket 11-169 (http://xrl.us/bmwh82).