Details about the upcoming July 1st Cable Integration Ban
Since I just mentioned about the July 1st rule change for cable companies, I thought it would be good to briefly mention what this FCC rule change is all about and how it affects you - assuming you’re a cable subscriber that is.
On July 1st, the FCC will require cable companies to make hardware changes to all new set-top boxes. The changes, which is really the second phase to a law enacted many years ago, amounts to separating the security functions from the navigation functions on the set-top box. This rule only affects customers with digital cable. If you’re an analog cable subscriber, then you’re not affected by this rule (although you might still end up being charged a higher cable fee). Right now, set-top boxes distributed by cable companies have both the security and navigation functionality rolled into a single package. The first phase of the law required cable companies to roll the security features into a separate component - hence the CableCARD concept. The second phase which starts up on July 1st, requires cable companies to provide new CableCARD enabled set top boxes to new subscribers or to existing subscribers that request new boxes. Existing subscribers can still keep their current set-top box if they want to.
The original goal for the FCC rule changes was to help spur competition in the cable industry. The hope was that by introducing CableCARD, consumers would be given additional product choices in what kind of set-top boxes they could use. Case in point - one could purchase a TiVo Series 3 DVR instead of renting a DVR box from Time Warner Cable and still have it work with TWC because of the CableCARD support.
Keep one thing clear though - this rule change says nothing about enhanced features that cable companies can provide such as pay-per-view or on-demand programming. If you opt for a third party set-top box using your cable companies’ CableCARD, then you’ll miss out on the enhanced features. Of course if you don’t use them, then you won’t miss them will you.
There’s a good writeup to this over at CNN.com here.