FCC ruling changed phone industry in 1968; it could happen again today

FCC RULING CHANGED PHONE INDUSTRY IN 1968; IT COULD HAPPEN AGAIN TODAY
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR:]
[Commentary] In 1968, the FCC ruled that anyone could make devices to attach to the telephone network. That's one reason we're not all stuck renting chunky black desktop phones from a telecom monopoly for $25 a month. The Carterfone Decision made way for multitudes of cheap phones, answering machines, fax machines and modems. In short, it unbundled the telephone system and opened up innovation and price competition. This year, a provision in the 1996 Telecommunications Act is likely to finally get enforced by FCC Chairman Martin. Cable companies will have to unbundle the cable system by sharing the descrambling code with other device makers. The cable industry has gotten deadline extensions ever since 1996, but the current extension runs out on July 1, and Chairman Martin says he doesn't want to allow another one. One certain outcome: A TiVo or Microsoft will be able to sell a box that connects to the cable line and the Internet. It will pull in cable channels, Web-based video and downloadable movies, mix them all together and present them on screen in a single menu. (Cable companies despise that because they lose control of the viewing experience.) In the same way, the cellphone industry needs to be unbundled. Consumer advocates want it. The FCC's Martin apparently wants it. Cellphone makers want it, though they don't like to say so and risk offending their wireless carrier partners. Cellphones and other wireless devices (such as cellular modem cards for laptops) are set up to work with one carrier. If any cellphone could work on any network, wireless devices would compete on their own merits, separate from the networks. That would increase competition among device makers and free them, for instance, to more easily make phones that work over Wi-Fi when in range of a Wi-Fi signal and switch to a cellular network other times.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20070131/maney31.art.htm

See Also --
COMCAST WANTS FULL REVIEW OF SET-TOP WAIVER REQUEST
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Cable operator Comcast has asked for full commission review of the Media Bureau's denial of its set-top waiver request. Not mincing any words, Comcast argues that the waiver denial was "fatally flawed," and is "egregious in its factual and legal distortions and bias." Comcast said it was "inexplicable" that the FCC took 266 days to act on the waiver when the Communications Act directs it to do so within 90 days. Comcast argues that the bureau had no authority to tell Comcast that it could resubmit its waiver request if it limited it only to family or ethnic tiers. "The bureau's plan raises serious First Amendment concerns," Comcast argues, because, "The bureau would require that Comcast offer specific types of programming content if it wants to receive a waiver." The bureau, said Comcast, "fabricated out of whole cloth" that and other "irrational" waiver standards.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6411688.html?display=Breaking...

* Comcast: Full FCC Set-Top Review
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6411747.html?display=Breaking+News