[MONOPOLY] Cable Set-Top Boxes - Comments Page 1

I would be very happy to get a second box and/or a whole house box, but my cable company already charges too much to rent the one box I have. So I would be very happy if I could just buy it. Even if I have to pay a one time price to them.

I'm not sure how to submit the letter supporting 16-42 to enable me to purchase my TV Setbox.
I've written the letter, followed the supplied link, and entered the submit filing area only to be stymied by the info requested.
Any help?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I found that you can leave most of the fields blank.

Would prefer to have a bit of control over the Programs offered, the hundreds offered, and the few viewed is substantial. If I could select the Favorites I desire and skip the rest of the Fazoo I would be very happy and pay for only what I watch and am interested in.The statements I receive are Mind boggling and full Confusing advertisements that appear to often and to loud. The entire provider is out of control.

My cable company is our community's telephone company. I am very happy with them except for one thing. I have used the TiVo software on my DVR since it first became available in the late 90's. I have two TiVo DVR's and when our telephone company offered digital I signed up. Their set-top box did not play well with either of my TiVo's and because of the FTC's ruling that only large cable companies had to offer cable cards, our small company did not and had no interest in doing so because they offered their own DVR. I dropped digital and I just use basic and extended basic and have no plans to update again to digital until the FCC requires all company's to offer cable cards.

This would be great for us seniors. I totally agree with the first three comments. As seniors it's pretty much the only entertainment we have and especially for those who are medically challenged.
We are certainly stuck with whatever they want to do. Any changes that would help us financially would be great, as we have almost no help from other sources, a bit of a discount on rent if you can get into a subsidized senior apartment and food stamps that may would give you enough food for your pet for a couple weeks. Keep up the good work FCC. Thanks

As L Fisher asked, could you please explain the impenetrable FCC form? Specifically: proceeding number; exparte?; file number; report number; Bureau ID. Also, to make a short comment rather than attaching a document, does clicking CONTINUE bring one to an online form for text entry? You have evidently done this before.

I also think it's ridiculous to have to use their set top boxes when my tv has a perfectly good tuner built in. Why can't we go back to the time when I attached the cable to my tv and used my tuner to choose what I watch. Another ridiculous thing is the need to have one of their boxes for each set I want to use. If I have 4 sets I have to have 4 cable boxes. I either want 1 box for the entire house or no boxes and each tv tunes it's own channels. This is why I'm strongly considering cutting the cord.

I have posted my comment. I have posted a link to your article on my FB page. Vive la revolucion. Hmmmm. y muerte a la comcasta.

Thank you so much I have submitted a response appreciate the heads up!!

The steps you have to go through to post comment on the FCC's website is very complicated for most of us and I believe that's why people are not responding.A petition or another way needs to be started.

Cut the cord three years ago. Have Tivo for OTA, records what I watch on CBS or NBC, watch at my time schedule. Tivo recently added a commerical skip, love it. During the bowl season added Sliing TV, didn't like it, just cancelled it. Have Netflix and Amazon Prime. Will not live long enough to see all they offer. Never going back to DirecTv. Also don't lose programing during a storm. But, the cable company is still sticking it to me for internet. Which reminds me, I need to call Cox, they just raised my account $10 again.

What's to keep the cable companies from simply raising their rates on other services, to make up for the revenue lost on renting set-top boxes?

Thank you for alerting us to this FCC proposal.

I agree with you and many others, it's past time to put an end to this monopoly on set-top boxes.

Good work!

Bob, your one statement said it all - "DirectTV allows customers to use third-party equipment, but charges a “network connection fee” that effectively eliminates any savings."
What this simply means is that if other cable and satellite companies can't rent you a box, they'll just charge a 'network connection fee' to access programming and you'll still be paying out your you know what.
They're going to squeeze every penny possible from you.
I don't mean to sound so gloom and doom, but I'm a realist.

Never had a cable to cut! I've used an antenna since the 60s to receive about 50+ channels here in southeastern Wisconsin. I have two Magnavox hd dvrs, (from Walmart) a Phillips hd dvr (from Radio Shack) and a Homeworx dvr which uses an external hard drive. I won't live long enough to watch all the hours of programming on these units! lol i use an Ooma for free phone service and I get broadband internet from a local provider since 2000. I hate monthly fees for anything and I refuse to allow any tv provider to pump tons of commercials and bad programming into my house and expect ME to pay them for it?! I've saved many,many thousands of $ over the years. It's your money folks!

I would like to occasionally do some time shifted viewing but my STB does not have DVR capability. Directv would be happy to fix that for another ten dollars a month. Ain't gonna' happen. I would definitely be in line to buy a third party box.

Just purchased an xfinity Arris Docsis 3.0 Telephony modem on ebay (New) for $135. Setup with Comcast with no problem. Save $10 a month. Should have done it years ago.

I agree the website could be more user friendly, but maybe this will help some of those folks having problems.

First, type out your comment on your own text editor. Notepad is what I used, but you could use a word processor if you want. Save it in a place you'll remember for 5 minutes.

Now go to the url that Bob Linked to -
http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/proceeding/view?name=16-42

Next, click "Submit a Filing in 16-42" which is near top left of page, directly over "Proceeding 16-42 Details"

In "Proceeding Number" box, enter " 16-42 " (no quotation marks)

In Contact Info, enter your name and email address (leave lawfirm & attorney info boxes blank)

In "Details" section, you can leave everything blank, except for the "type of filing" box, which should already say "Comment"

Address section: just fill it out with your address & zip

Documents section: Choose the file where you've already saved your text document (notepad works fine)

Click "continue", and the rest is obvious.

A satellite dish, LNB, mounts and cable connected to satellite decoder(s) is a cheap and effective option. A plethora of free to view channels are available. Decoders are available for about $30-$40 each. A splitter will allow multiple decoders to be attached to a single dish so you can have a decoder at each TV. A multiple LNB setup on the dish, or multiple dishes will allow you to access more satellites and thus more content. No more monthly subscription and the whole setup cost will be recouped in about a year, depending on how flash a system you go for.

one word KODI free download install to a computer and stream all the content you could want. Then cut the cord. If more people did this the cost of TV would have to come down.