Microsoft Supports Only 12-Month Delay in Integration Ban
Although Microsoft appeared to project a united front with cable when it joined with Comcast and Time Warner Cable to urge the FCC to delay the July 2006 integration ban “for some period ranging from 6 to 18 months,” Microsoft has told the Commission it won’t support a postponement longer than 12 months, sources have told our sister publication Consumer Electronics Daily.
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Microsoft told us in a statement it was “cognizant of the concerns expressed” by the CE and IT industries that cable “will simply delay action” on downloadable security, as proposed in the letter it sent the FCC with Comcast and Time Warner Cable. But Microsoft said it acted because advances in technology since the integration ban rule was established warranted the delay. Nevertheless, the letter said the companies agreed the delay by as much as 18 months was necessary to allow such a downloadable security system to be deployed. Cable has long pushed the FCC to delay the integration ban 18 months if it won’t scrap the ban.
But most in the CE and IT industries have said even a delay of 6 months would be 6 months too long. In wake of the Microsoft development, TiVo was the latest to weigh in with that argument at the FCC, according to an ex parte filing at the Commission. March 2, TiVo executives met with FCC staff and TiVo CEO Mike Ramsay spoke by phone with Chmn. Powell, the filing said. TiVo said it expressed its concern about the cable-Microsoft letter and possible implications for ongoing talks on bi-directional CableCARDs.
TiVo said it’s developing a product based on multistream CableCARDs, but none are produced or supported by the cable industry. If the Commission plans to pursue the cable-Microsoft proposal on downloadable security, the FCC “should require the cable industry to commit explicitly to produce and support a one-way multi-stream CableCARD,” TiVo said. The pledge in the cable-Microsoft letter to support the current unidirectional CableCARD, including the multi-stream variety, “is meaningless without specification of a date certain,” TiVo said. It called on the FCC to require cable to make unidirectional multi-stream CableCARDs available this year, “without additional license requirements or other restrictions.” Moreover, multistream specifications should be submitted to ANSI or another standards body in an open process, “which CableLabs does not provide,” TiVo said.