Chairman Wheeler: 'Ditch the Box' Effort Is 'Terrific'

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said he was glad the cable industry offered up a compromise set-top proposal but suggested that indicated many of the problems those same parties had with the initial proposal weren't problems after all. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association and others proposed a "ditch the box" variation on the Chairman's "unlock the box" proposal recently. In a Q&A following a speech at the National Press Club on 5G wireless broadband, Chairman Wheeler was asked about the cable-backed effort. "I think it is absolutely terrific that the cable industry came forward with this proposal," he said. "I have been asking them to do this, and I think that by coming forward they indicated that a lot of the arguments that had been put up against our set-top box proposal really fell by the wayside."

He said that cable proposal indicated that copyright can be protected, that privacy can be protected and that small networks can continue to thrive and that you don't have to remake the network to do all that. "So, I think that what they have done is say, 'yes, the approach that the FCC suggested is an approach that can be taken.'" He said he wanted to now engage in "constructive" dialog on how you write the specific regulations to achieve that.