FCC Grants Charter Its Two-Year CableCARD Waiver
The FCC Media Bureau granted Charter Communications’ request for a two-year waiver of FCC CableCARD rules to further “the development of an industry wide downloadable separate security standard,” said an order (http://bit.ly/11LKkk0). Thursday’s decision, which was expected (CD April 8 p7), disagreed with opposition to the company’s request from CEA and other groups. Signed by the bureau chief, it includes requirements for Charter to partner with a consumer electronics manufacturer to create a retail device using the new security system and to continue supporting CableCARDs. It includes extra broadband deployment, and the company said faster broadband speeds and better video services are among the benefits Charter subscribers will see.
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CEA said the order indicates the FCC won’t be creating new rules governing set-top box integrated security. The waiver represents “a further shrinking [of the FCC] from their responsibility to proceed with a public rulemaking,” said Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Julie Kearney. Charter believes “the FCC has helped expedite Charter’s ability to deliver a next-generation, all-digital network,” a company spokeswoman said. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.
The bureau imposed several conditions on Charter that the order said are designed to encourage industrywide adoption of downloadable security, including requiring the company to use the same system used by Cablevision. That was the only other company granted a waiver of CableCARD rules. Charter is required to submit a declaration from its CEO that the company is in negotiations with a retail CE manufacturer to build set-top boxes using a downloadable security system that will work with all of Charter’s systems, and make the operator’s technology available to other companies royalty free. The order said the requirement to work with a retail manufacturer “will ensure that Charter customers will have the option of purchasing equipment from a third party that takes advantage of [Charter’s technology], thereby helping to foster a competitive retail market.” The order required Charter to make available broadband access of 100 Mbps or more available to 200,000 additional homes before the two-year waiver period ends, something the operator had proposed.
CEA had asked the FCC to require Charter to provide CableCARDs “for so long as customers want CableCARDs” (http://bit.ly/11m71eW). Instead, the order requires Charter to “indefinitely support CableCARDs,” though it said the company only has to provide them until a “third party device compatible with Charter’s downloadable security is available for purchase at retail.” Charter “will continue to support legacy boxes with separable security,” said a company spokeswoman. CEA was “reviewing the order and seeing what remains of the FCC commitment to properly implementing Section 629,” which governs the integrated security ban for set-tops and the CableCARD rules, Kearney said.
Kearney highlighted a passage in the order, which references the January EchoStar decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (http://bit.ly/10nMM3E). The D.C. Circuit struck down CableCARD rules designed to encourage interoperability, including requiring companies to allow self-installation and uniform fees. The waiver acknowledged that those rules no longer apply, and that “Charter does not need a waiver in order to implement a downloadable security system as long as the system complies with the integration ban.” Kearney said this passage implies that the commission has no plans to challenge the D.C. Circuit decision or hold a new rulemaking procedure on the matter. “The D.C. Circuit’s EchoStar decision arguably vacated all of these [CableCARD] rules, and the Bureau’s Charter waiver order effectively acknowledges that uncertainty,” wrote Davis Wright attorney Paul Glist, who represented Charter during the waiver process, on the law firm’s blog (http://bit.ly/14CoHYo).