Cable and CE industry negotiators ‘are again moving forward, expe...
Cable and CE industry negotiators “are again moving forward, expeditiously” in an effort to complete “Phase II” specifications on bidirectional plug-&-play devices, CEA said in its 3rd status report to the FCC on cable-DTV interoperability issues. It said work…
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on Phase II specs became bogged down because of outside issues. Like NCTA, CEA said it was reaching out to 3rd parties whose interests might be affected by the negotiations (CD Jan 22 p11). CEA said objectives included: (1) Establishing “known, minimal technical requirements” for bidirectional devices. (2) Creating a “truly level” competitive playing field, including reliance on a common security interface. (3) Avoiding functionality that would put a home or external network at a competitive disadvantage. (4) Maintaining a competitive market for home network services and devices. Commenting for the first time on the NCTA’s reconsideration petition filed Dec. 29 seeking FCC rule changes on certain aspects of the “testing regime” and “the status of independent laboratories generally,” CEA said the talks were addressing the points raised to the extent that they touched on matters relevant to testing at CableLabs. It said CableLabs “Test Guidelines,” posted on the CableLabs Web site as Version 1.0, remained under “active and constructive discussion” between cable and CE negotiators. But it said “there remain novel, difficult and often contentious questions” that hadn’t been resolved on those and some other issues. CEA said so contentious were some of those issues that the FCC ultimately might be asked to resolve them.