Eighth-floor officials are in talks over possible changes to the FCC draft set-top order, agency and industry officials said in interviews. Those negotiations are believed to center on the licensing aspects of the set-top plan called problematic by programmers, legislators and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who's seen as the key vote required for Chairman Tom Wheeler to get the plan approved. There's no appetite in Wheeler's office to remove the item from the Sept. 29 commissioner meeting agenda, industry officials said.
Eighth-floor officials are in talks over possible changes to the FCC draft set-top order, agency and industry officials said in interviews. Those negotiations are believed to center on the licensing aspects of the set-top plan called problematic by programmers, legislators and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who's seen as the key vote required for Chairman Tom Wheeler to get the plan approved. There's no appetite in Wheeler's office to remove the item from the Sept. 29 commissioner meeting agenda, industry officials said.
AUSTIN -- The cable franchise process can’t stay the same for long given convergence and new technologies, said a cable official and attorneys on local government issues Wednesday at the NATOA conference. Congress could take on the issue in a rewrite of the Communications Act, but local government officials shouldn’t count on quick federal action, they said. NCTA supports a rewrite, Deputy General Counsel Michael Schooler said in a keynote.
AUSTIN -- The cable franchise process can’t stay the same for long given convergence and new technologies, said a cable official and attorneys on local government issues Wednesday at the NATOA conference. Congress could take on the issue in a rewrite of the Communications Act, but local government officials shouldn’t count on quick federal action, they said. NCTA supports a rewrite, Deputy General Counsel Michael Schooler said in a keynote.
Charter Communications is opposing the part of FCC's set-top box proposal that would require cable modems be broken out on customers' bills and their cost unsubsidized. Saying it would be "more than happy" to note on customers’ bills that its modems are free, Charter in a blog post Wednesday said it "doesn’t stand to reason that customers will benefit from forcing companies to start charging for modems they currently give away." Compared with much of the set-top proceeding, cable modems are "a sleeper issue, but it offers a road map to undermining the retail market [for set-tops] and kill[ing] off the set-top box retail market before it ever gets off the ground," Andrew Schwartzman, outside counsel for Zoom Telephonics, told us Wednesday. Zoom repeatedly pushed the FCC for cable modem conditions on Charter's buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks (see 1511270051, 1511240028 and 1511040045) and has backed the FCC on the cable modem portion of the set-top proposal.
Charter Communications is opposing the part of FCC's set-top box proposal that would require cable modems be broken out on customers' bills and their cost unsubsidized. Saying it would be "more than happy" to note on customers’ bills that its modems are free, Charter in a blog post Wednesday said it "doesn’t stand to reason that customers will benefit from forcing companies to start charging for modems they currently give away." Compared with much of the set-top proceeding, cable modems are "a sleeper issue, but it offers a road map to undermining the retail market [for set-tops] and kill[ing] off the set-top box retail market before it ever gets off the ground," Andrew Schwartzman, outside counsel for Zoom Telephonics, told us Wednesday. Zoom repeatedly pushed the FCC for cable modem conditions on Charter's buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks (see 1511270051, 1511240028 and 1511040045) and has backed the FCC on the cable modem portion of the set-top proposal.
Chairman Tom Wheeler promised the FCC will take up an order addressing a second phase of its mobility fund by the end of the year. It will also soon release Form 477 data that shows a mobility fund is necessary and too many locations remain unserved, Wheeler said at the Competitive Carriers Association annual meeting, in remarks streamed from Seattle.
Chairman Tom Wheeler promised the FCC will take up an order addressing a second phase of its mobility fund by the end of the year. It will also soon release Form 477 data that shows a mobility fund is necessary and too many locations remain unserved, Wheeler said at the Competitive Carriers Association annual meeting, in remarks streamed from Seattle.
Congressional efforts to revise the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the 30-year-old anti-hacking statute, ran aground this year even as civil liberties lawyers and others are raising the alarm over expanded CFAA use to "overcriminalize" routine behaviors like password sharing -- even a Netflix password, some said -- and chill security research. Electronic Frontier Foundation Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon told us Wednesday that with little legislative time left this year, EFF and others are looking to "reinvigorate" the issue as possibly part of a larger criminal justice package next year. "We want to make sure that CFAA doesn’t disappear because it’s a niche issue," he said. He said he has been talking with members of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and is "planting seeds" to try to push changes starting in January.
Congressional efforts to revise the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the 30-year-old anti-hacking statute, ran aground this year even as civil liberties lawyers and others are raising the alarm over expanded CFAA use to "overcriminalize" routine behaviors like password sharing -- even a Netflix password, some said -- and chill security research. Electronic Frontier Foundation Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon told us Wednesday that with little legislative time left this year, EFF and others are looking to "reinvigorate" the issue as possibly part of a larger criminal justice package next year. "We want to make sure that CFAA doesn’t disappear because it’s a niche issue," he said. He said he has been talking with members of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and is "planting seeds" to try to push changes starting in January.