FCC Broadband Plan Seen Recommending Gateway Set-Top Box
The FCC National Broadband Plan will likely recommend proceedings on how to implement set-top boxes as broadband gateways, said several FCC and industry officials. Technical details of what the plan will recommend remain sparse and the broadband task force appears to still be deliberating on how to proceed once the full plan is made public next month. FCC officials also said spectrum plans are still being worked out.
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Some FCC staffers have yet to see a draft of what the task force is proposing, they said. A draft may be ready this week, some said. Another staffer said the task force is generally “looking at some sort of open standards interface idea that would allow for proprietary stuff on one side” with “standards to allow for development of new apps and devices that could plug into an open interface.”
Set-top box manufacturers remain concerned at the prospect of new standards, but some are adjusting their stances to work with the agency and develop a path that would work for all parties, as some sort of proceeding looks increasingly inevitable. “We think technical mandates are a bad idea generally, particularly when there is an innovative market,” Jason Friedrich, Motorola broadband policy director, told us. Still, the company has engaged the commission to push for a more deliberate course of action, he said. Friedrich and a Cisco executive met with aides to Commissioner Michael Copps on Wednesday to advocate a notice of inquiry rather than a rulemaking notice, said an ex parte filing.
Others also hope to persuade the commission that enough progress is being made and that a technological mandate isn’t needed. Verizon met with Media Bureau and broadband staffers Wednesday to demonstrate how FiOS subscribers can currently use TVs to access the Internet, said an ex parte filing. The company said it’s working with manufacturers to develop products that would let customers watch programming on other networked devices. Such developments have occurred “without the presence of any new technological mandate,” which “could distort the pro-consumer innovation that is already well underway,” the telco said.
With many entities not wanting a rulemaking notice and instead an notice of inquiry, it’s up in the air how the commission will address the issue, said an FCC official. Details about what technology will be sought don’t appear to have been determined yet, agency officials said. Some officials haven’t been deluged with meetings so far, possibly because so little is concrete, one said.
Discussions on spectrum between broadband staffers and commissioners’ offices, as with gateway devices, also are at an early stage, several agency officials said. There have been few specifics about how much spectrum the report will recommend be repurposed for wireless broadband use from broadcast TV, if any, and whether VHF spectrum ought to not be considered for reallocation, they said. “The CTIA doesn’t want to use VHF, and the broadcasters, the more progressive thinking ones, have already realized that UHF is the way to go,” said Technology Vice President James Ocon of Gray Television, which runs 36 stations. “Neither side wants it -- it’s like a game of hot potato. It could work, but it needs a little more technical” progress. Most discussion at the FCC has been at a high level of generality where those working on the report have said spectrum ought to be used more efficiently and for advanced services, agency officials said.