Charter and CEA Trade Opposing CableCARD Waiver Filings

The recent back and forth in FCC filings between Charter Communications and CEA over acceptable conditions for granting the cable operator’s application for a waiver of CableCARD rules could indicate a decision on the matter is upcoming, several industry observers said. The sides have been trading opposing filings on the company’s request for a CableCARD waiver (CED March 26 p6) so it can deploy downloadable security to set-top boxes. With Julius Genachowski planning to leave as FCC chairman, he may want to grant the waiver before he departs, said some industry officials.

The recent uptick of activity on the Charter application and the FCC’s current state of transition could indicate a vote on the matter could be coming soon, said a public interest and a CE official. “It’s anyone’s guess when the commission will come out with a decision, but presumably something would happen before the chairman steps down,” said CEA Vice President Julie Kearney. “Possibly,” she added. Public Knowledge lawyer John Bergmayer said Genachowski’s leaving would very likely affect the timing of a ruling on Charter’s application: “An acting chair would be less likely to vote on this.”

The conditions CEA sought and what Charter offered were different, and Kearney said the two sides aren’t in agreement. In Schwartz’s filing Monday, CEA said Charter should have to prove that its downloadable security system would be interoperable with other systems, including the current CableCARD system, future downloadable systems, and the downloadable system used by Cablevision. That operator was granted a similar waiver in 2007 (CED Jan 12/07 p1). The conditions CEA seeks of Charter also included a requirement for the operator to be “committed to providing free CableCARDs to retail devices for so long as customers want CableCARDs” and share its downloadable security technology with other companies.

Rutledge’s Friday letter doesn’t address most of Schwartz’s points. Charter promised that if a waiver is granted, the company will convert 100 percent of its systems to all-digital within nine months of the waiver’s end and make 100 Mbps broadband available to 200,000 additional homes.

Despite the distance between the two positions, CEA’s latest filing acknowledged that because Charter serves primarily rural areas, granting the company a waiver wouldn’t necessarily represent an industry precedent that would grease the wheels for future waiver applicants. Rutledge’s letter contained a provision for continued support of CableCARDs -- though only until a “a third party retail device with downloadable security is in use by Charter subscribers."

CEA opposes waivers and exceptions to FCC rules, said Kearney. “We've seen this movie before, and we'd like to watch a different one,” she said, referencing the 2007 Cablevision waiver. Cablevision’s waiver was granted at the very end of former Chairman Kevin Martin’s administration.