Class Action

FCC Slaps Cable Companies with Fines for Knocking CableCARD Customers Offline

By classlawblog

According to DSLreports.com, SDV (Switched Digital Video) technology has been crippling one way CableCARDs (like TiVo) for many customers, resulting in FCC fines (see FCC fine 1, 2, and 3) to the companies deploying this technology.  The SDV upgrades are designed to conserve network bandwidth by delivering fewer channels to the cable box and keeping unwatched channels at the edge of a cable customer?s router.  The upgrade, however, has an allegedly unanticipated side affect of knocking many customers? third party set-tops, such as TiVo, offline.  According to reports, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications have been aggressively deploying the SDV upgrades to their customers.  Time Warner has been reportedly forcing perturbed customers to use Time Warner’s set-top boxes, to gain a full digital lineup, after customers’ third party set-tops are destroyed by the SDV upgrade.  On October 15, 2008, the FCC fined Time Warner for the failures in Oahu and Kauai, Hawaii, and Cox, for its failed SDV upgrade in Fairfax County, Virginia.  The FCC also ordered the cable companies to offer refunds to customers adversely affected by the SDV upgrade in those jurisdictions.

Full post as published by ClassLawBlog.com on November 19, 2008 (boomark / email).