Television last frontier of innovation?

In just one year, the hottest cell phones went from the flip Motorola Razor to mobile computers like the iPhone. Lightening-fast innovations are taking place throughout technology, except for one area: the television. That was a concern voiced by officials at the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, who identified a lack of competition and innovation in the television set-top-box market as a key hurdle to the adoption of broadband Internet. In its charge to blanket the country with affordable Internet access, the FCC is looking broadly at problems throughout the communications industry. It's already upsetting telecom and cable companies whose businesses are being scrutinized as it reviews a federal fund for phone service and the potential use of broadcast spectrum for mobile Internet use. Yesterday, they got under the skin of the cable and satellite industries with a critique of their use of set top boxes, which the agency said are not embracing the convergence of online video with regular old television models.