CableCARD Draft Revisions May Include Cable Bill Information, Self-Install Mandate

The FCC may consider revising a draft CableCARD order in areas such as what information cable operators must put on subscribers’ monthly bills, if all operators must let customers install on their own plug-and-play devices, and whether one-way HD boxes without the cards need IP connections, agency and industry officials said Wednesday. Lobbying by the cable and consumer electronics industries on the item continued at what some at the commission described as a fervent pace in preparation for the end of such discussions Thursday night (CED Oct 6 p6). The item isn’t generally controversial within the FCC, agency officials said.

Commissioners, their aides and career FCC staffers may soon pursue edits to the original version of the item later this week and early next before next Thursday’s vote, agency and industry officials said. The final order isn’t likely to have major changes from the first draft that recently circulated from the Media Bureau (CED Sept 28 p4), agency officials predicted. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.

Among changes under consideration at the agency is whether the final order ought to be changed to require more information be provided by cable operators to customers about how much CableCARDs cost even when they're included in bundled packages of services, agency and industry officials said. They said the draft item mainly deals with requiring cable operators to specify much pricing information, but doesn’t say whether it all must be included in billing statements or can be disclosed in rate cards or on the companies’ websites. Significant areas of the draft that are unlikely to be changed include letting cable operators use tuning adapters or IP backchannel signaling so plug-and-play devices that don’t use tru2way technology can get switched digital video channels, letting operators of all sizes use one-way HD boxes without cards and allowing any kind of IP connection on two-way HD boxes, agency officials said.

Getting attention at the commission is whether one-way boxes ought to include IP connections, as some CE entities seek and some cable operators oppose, said agency and industry officials. The draft lets cable operators use such inexpensive boxes without any IP connection, as an earlier bureau order to the Washington Post Co.’s Cable One did, agency officials said. There may be some consideration of whether IP connections ought to be required, they said.

Also getting consideration is whether all cable operators must let subscribers install, without a technician visit to their home, a CableCARD on a plug-and-play consumer electronics device which they buy from a retailer, FCC and industry officials said. The current draft states that operators must provide such an option only when they already offer self-installation of CableCARD devices they provide to customers, they said. Officials at the CEA and NCTA declined to comment.