NCTA To FCC: End Set-Top Integration Ban

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has offered up its short-term fixes to the CableCARD regime, including the suggestion that the Federal Communications Commission stop requiring any more cards be deployed for a system the FCC wants to phase out.

In comments to the FCC, NCTA said it was time to end the integration band. The FCC had mandated that cable operators separate the security and channel-surfing functions in set-tops as a way to spur a retail market in the boxes. Both the FCC and cable operators are in agreement that a robust market has not resulted from the ban. NCTA says that it has deployed about 20-million of the CableCARD devices since the FCC's July 2007 mandate, and says that is enough.