Verizon petition of FCC indicates early transition to digital transmission

August 1, 2007 – Verizon has recently requested the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to change the wording of a rule concerning the switch to digital transmission by operators, indicating that it may make the transition within a year.

The FCC rule requires operators to notify customers of their intention to transition to all-digital transmission one full year in advance, and Verizon has requested that the wording be changed to ‘reasonable notice’.  This implies that either Verizon plans to go all-digital within 12 months, in which case it may already have missed the deadline for public notice, or it hopes to avoid giving competitors a full year’s notice of its intentions to switch.  The FCC deadline for all television operators in the US to switch to digital transmission is set at February 17, 2009.

The company has also requested the FCC to grant it a waiver extension for separable security set-top boxes, as it is apparently concerned that the downloadable conditional access system (DCAS) technology being developed will not be ready within the year.  Verizon was one of the few to receive a one-year waiver for the transition to separable security, but claims that it has special difficulties in complying which are not shared by the cable industry, and has requested a three year extension.

“In order to comply with the one-year waiver, Verizon will have to expend enormous resources developing an interim solution – only to replace it with common DCAS when that technology is available,” states the company.  “Forcing Verizon to implement a security solution twice will waste resources, time and effort, to the company’s detriment and ultimately the detriment of consumers.”