Modem maker Zoom Telephonics has told the FCC that if it decides to close the set-top box docket—as some high-profile Republican legislators have requested—it needs to resolve one part of that docket elsewhere.
Zoom points out that the FCC declined to deal with navigation device modem billing and marketing practices—as Zoom has asked it to do—in two other proceedings, noting that it was part of the set-top proceeding.
Zoom noes that the letter from House Energy & Commerce Committee chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) is focused on the changes to the "technical requirements relating to the attachment of set-top boxes." The FCC under then chairman Tom Wheeler proposed allowing those devices to access and disaggregate cable content and data.
"Should the Commission decide to close, or to defer action, on Docket 16-42, the cable modem billing and marketing issues will remain," it said in a letter to the commission. "Prompt resolution of them will contribute to maintaining what it currently a robust retail market for cable modems, and will remove uncertainty for consumers, cable operators and equipment manufacturers."
