Waiver Relief

The FCC Media Bureau late Mon granted RCN, WOW, James Cable and Great Plains Cable’s request for limited waivers of the Jul 1 set-top integration ban that forces operators to only deploy boxes with CableCARDs. Citing financial hardships and other reasons, the Bureau gave the 4 until Jul 1, ’08 to comply—similar to the waiver granted Charter. The 4 can deploy certain integrated boxes for the next year. "The Commission recognizes that RCN’s capital structure and resources are vastly different from the incumbent cable and telephone companies with whom we compete…" said Richard Ramlall, RCN svp, strategic & external affairs. Jet Broadband, which has requested a waiver while it waits for set-tops using Beyond Broadband Technology’s downloadable security system, was asked to submit more info addressing the openness of BBT’s standards. The Media Bureau said it would waive enforcement for Jet until Sept 1, while it reviews the material submitted. The Bureau also granted waivers to 7 multichannel video providers who are all-digital or will be by Feb 2009 (Colo Telephone, Griswold Co-op, Coon Creek Telephone, Wellman Co-op, Interstate Cablevision, NTS and XIT).