__/ [ Ramon F Herrera ] on Monday 11 June 2007 19:03 \__
>
> · Hardware changes coming to new set-top cable boxes
> · FCC chairman: We need an *open* cable box market
> · Cable industry feels consumers won't benefit from the change
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- It has been 11 years since Congress voted to break
> the cable television industry's stranglehold on set-top boxes -- the
> devices that consumers need to receive digital programming and change
> channels.
>
> So why are you still paying $5 or more a month for that thing on top
> of your TV?
>
> When Congress rewrote the nation's communications laws in 1996, it
> envisioned a thriving retail market where subscribers could actually
> buy their own boxes rather than make monthly payments to the cable
> company in perpetuity.
>
> Things haven't quite worked out that way. The retail market for the
> boxes has failed to materialize, and the cable industry has filed
> numerous appeals and continued to press a furious lobbying and public
> relations campaign to make sure it never does, foes say.
>
> Come July 1, the gloves come off. After two years of deadline
> extensions, that's when the Federal Communications Commission will
> require cable companies to make hardware changes in all new set-top
> boxes that it hopes will lead to a competitive market.
>
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/06/11/bye.cable.box.ap/index.html
> http://tinyurl.com/23jwdd
Very true (the subject line). Here in the UK, the broadband indutry has
recently come under fire for relying on high exit barriers and making any
switch very hard. I can recall similar experiences and tactics being used by
ISPs when I was a child. Regulation is required to resolve this because the
customer -- not the vendor -- must always be in control. AOL is probably a
good example here, but it's more of an American classic.
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | "On the eighth day, God created UNIX"
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