The analog broadcast cutoff, February 17th 2009, is quickly approaching. Sometime shortly after this date cable operators will drop all analog channels and become purely digital.

Currently all HDTVs sold have QAM tuners capable of receiving unencrypted (clear) digital cable (QAM). The problem is cable operators use encryption on digital cable channels.

In order to receive these encrypted digital cable channels consumers will have to either rent cable boxes or CableCards. That means every TV that needs a cable box or every device that needs a CableCard the consumer will have to pay a rental fee. These rental fees will add up quickly and be extremely expensive.

These monthly rental fees are not in the best interest of the consumers.

Proposal.

1. FCC mandate all digital cable channels be in the clear and cable operators use traps(filters) based on the customers subscriptions just like they do for the current analog channels.

2. When DCAS (downloadable content access system) devices not requiring CableCards are on the market, only then allow the cable operators to revert back to encrypted cable channels.