The FCC continues to field CableCARD waiver requests even though ...

from the July, 2007, set-top box security and navigation integration ban. The company wants to keep using what it calls inexpensive boxes to reach customers among the island’s residents, more than half of whom fall below the poverty line, it said. P.R. Cable deserves the same relief given to another small operator, Bend Cable (CD Jan 11 p1), it said. P.R. Cable already runs an all-digital network, while Bend’s Jan. waiver was conditioned on operating one, P.R. Cable, which does business as Choice Cable, said: “The continued ability to deploy low-cost integrated devices is critical to Choice’s ability to maintain an all-digital network through the DTV transition in February 2009, and indeed to its survival.” Earlier this year, Liberty Cablevision, another P.R. cable operator, sought a CableCARD waiver (CD Feb 16 p9), citing poverty and all-digital operations. FCC Chmn. Martin has signaled he may be inclined to grant waivers or deadline extensions to companies operating all-digital networks. Other waiver-seekers visited the 8th-floor last week, ex parte filings showed. Officials from WideOpenWest, including CEO Colleen Abdoulah, met Thurs. with Michelle Carey, Martin’s media advisor. An RCN representative spoke by phone with Carey and, separately, with an aide to Comr. McDowell. Carey met with officials from Beyond Broadband Technology, now at work on a downloadable security solution championed by some on the 8th floor. Beyond Broadband officials held separate meetings with Media Bureau Chief Monica Desai and aides to Comrs. Adelstein, Copps, McDowell and Tate. Communications lawyers are uncertain when the Bureau will act on a slew of pending CableCARD waivers, they have said. Comcast is awaiting action on a petition to the full Commission; we're told that as of last week that petition wasn’t circulating among all commissioners.