Charter Communications’ CableCARD waiver could invalidate all of...
Charter Communications’ CableCARD waiver could invalidate all of the FCC’s rules assuring commercial availability of retail navigation devices, said CEA in its latest ex parte asking the Media Bureau to rescind or reconsider the waiver (http://bit.ly/12tEh73). CEA said the waiver…
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overreaches the bureau’s authority and “confirms that Bureau level waivers on delegated authority are not substitutes for Commission policy determinations.” Charter had said the EchoStar decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (http://bit.ly/10nMM3E) already struck down the commission’s rules on CableCARDs (CD June 6 p3), but CEA said Charter’s argument ignores several other regulations that weren’t affected by EchoStar. “Charter’s EchoStar argument is based on misreading and ignoring Commission Orders,” said CEA. The association also attacked the waiver for not sufficiently guaranteeing continued supply of CableCARDs and chastised the bureau for granting concessions to Charter that were not included in the commission’s public notice, which CEA said “misled the public.” Charter and bureau spokeswomen declined to comment. CEA said the waiver “provides no guidance for industry toward the establishment of a uniform set of expectations for a downloadable security system that, like the CableCARD, would support competitive entry products through a national standard."