The FCC Gets Ready to Unlock the Cable Box

[Commentary] Every year, American cable-TV subscribers spend $231 on average to rent cable boxes that they should be able to buy outright, potentially saving them hundreds of dollars over several years. Consumers could soon have that option under an excellent proposal by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. If the industry had its way, we would still be renting phones from the old Ma Bell. Allowing consumers to buy their own phones was one of the first steps the FCC took in promoting new telecommunications technologies. Requiring cable-TV systems to make room for competing devices should similarly lead to a boom in new types of services and technologies.