FCC Grants Set-top Box Waivers

The FCC's Media Bureau granted several waivers to cable operators regarding compliance requirements for various set-top boxes.



Charter Communications was granted a request for a waiver of the ban on integrated set-top boxes for seven set-top box models until July 1, 2008.



The FCC also granted conditional waivers of the integration ban to Millennium Telcom (OneSource Communications) and GCI Cable, Inc.. The bureau found that these operators' commitments to migrate their systems to all-digital on or before February 17, 2009 justified grant of the waivers. Among other things, migration to all-digital will facilitate the DTV transition and enable expanded service offerings. The Bureau denied Millennium's request for a waiver with respect to one set-top box model, finding Millenium's arguments that this high-end model was critical to its ability to migrate to all-digital unconvincing.

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