Verizon Can't Get No Satisfaction

8/1/2007

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While Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) continue to complain vehemently to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over denied waiver requests on set-tops with integrated security, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) apparently is not satisfied about the waiver it did obtain just before the July 1 deadline took effect. (See Verizon & Others Get Their Waivers and NCTA Seeks Waiver Reversal .)

Verizon, which currently uses QIP series boxes from Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), is appealing for an extension until 2010 on high-end integrated security boxes, including models with on-board digital video recorders and high-definition tuners.

As the NCTA reiterated in its filing to the FCC on Monday, Verizon has a permanent waiver for low-end set-tops, provided it goes all-digital by February 2009, and a one-year waiver for HD and DVR boxes.

Verizon wants to satisfy the FCC's separable security requirement with a downloadable conditional access system but indicates that such a system won't be ready a year from now.

It appears that Verizon's massive, fast-tracked, "next-generation" set-top and conditional access RFP isn't on a fast enough track. (See Verizon Set-Top RFP Could Be Worth Billions .)

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News