CE makers ’simply do not understand why an important group like y...

calls for the FCC to grant cable’s various CableCARD waiver requests. One such group, the Black Leadership Forum, wrote FCC Chmn. Martin Sept. 28 claiming cable companies would have to pass along $600 million in yearly added costs to besieged consumers if the Commission enforces a July 1, 2007, CableCARD deadline. “Particularly troubling is the unnecessary nature of what can be only described as a regressive ’tax’ on cable customers,” Forum Exec. Dir. Joe Leonard said: “With gas prices spiraling through the roof and wages stagnant, the federal government should be seeking ways to provide working Americans relief. Instead, the FCC appears poised to allow a regulation to go into effect which would saddle consumers with added costs and give them nothing tangible in return.” The Forum “would certainly support FCC rules designed to usher in new competitive technologies and equipment designed to help consumers navigate their incoming cable signals,” he said. For example, downloadable security will let next-generation DTVs “navigate cable signals without imposing unnecessary costs on consumers,” Leonard said. But a “backward-looking” CableCARD rule “will divert resources that could be better invested in these newer technologies,” he said. Dozens of letters in this vein were sent Martin in a campaign run by LMG, a Washington-based lobbying firm begun by Julian Epstein, former chief Democratic counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, now on NCTA’s retainer. In CEA’s replies to Leonard and 9 others -- copies also sent to Martin and filed in the Commission’s CableCARD docket (97-80) -- Shapiro said consumers “can and should have more choices, so we are puzzled that your organization is not supporting” a 1996 law enacted by Congress that mandates CableCARDs. The cable industry-designed CableCARD was the “key to ensuring that consumers could use devices of their choice to receive cable programming,” Shapiro said: “After numerous delays, including extensions granted by the FCC and 2 lost court cases, the cable companies are still chaining their customers to technology of the past and requiring them to pay higher fees for the privilege of using their pre-1996 first- generation technology, not to mention defying the will of Congress and the FCC.” If the Commission grants another waiver, cable companies “will continue to use their proprietary set-top boxes safely within their monopolies, while eschewing consumer choice, innovation and technological advancement,” Shapiro said: “Ultimately, consumers pay for these actions through high monthly costs and minimal choice.”