Are cable companies violating federal law by charging a monthly fee for cable ca

[harryh]

Keyword here is assurance. 

Section 629 of the Communications Act, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 instructs the Commission to "adopt regulations to assure the commercial availability, to consumers . . . of . . . equipment used . . . to access multichannel video programming and other services offered over multichannel video programming systems, from manufacturers, retailers, and other vendors not affiliated with any multichannel video programming distributor." Additionally, Section 629 states that Commission rules "shall not prescribe regulations . . . which would jeopardize security of . . . services offered over multichannel video programming systems, or impede the legal rights of a provider of such services to prevent theft of service."

Again, keyword here is assure.  By charging the same 4.95 monthly fee as a set-top box, and not offering true two way capability, how are Cox, Verizon, and Comcast assuring anything.  They shun cable-card technology, and if you want a tivo with dual capability, you still have to pay the cable companies $5.00 per month x2 cards ($10.00) plus tivo's fees.   By charging these fees, "consumer assurance"  is priced out. 

Class action anyone?


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[TV_guy]

The spirit of the Act is to provide choice to consumers to get a set-top box from anywhere they want.  It does not mean free service.
Of course cable companies make it REALLY hard to get someone-else's box and I agree, paying $5/month for a card, on top of the monthly service is a little bit too much. But I think most cable companies only ask for a one time fee for a card ($10-$20) and then you just pay for your regular service.


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