News Articles

FCC may push set-top cable boxes for high-speed internet connections

Almost every home in America has a TV. Three-quarters of the homes have a computer. The Federal Communications Commission is attempting to bring high-speed internet by revamping the set-top box market, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The move would equip the boxes with internet-surfing capability, ringing in an era of allowing users to utilize the box to watch cable shows, download movies from the web and surf the internet all while sitting on the recliner and looking at the TV. In addition to speeding up the internet connection in more homes Internet into more homes, advocates told the San Jose Mercury News that the FCC's effort could start a technological movement where the basic set-top cable box becomes a multiuse machine, much like the cell phone has been to the BlackBerry and the iPhone. “We've seen a steady march of TVs and separate boxes that provide web-based video,” said Brian Markwalter, vice president of technology and standards for the Consumer Electronics Association. “When you can integrate that with the other pieces you're paying for it will spark all sorts of creativity.” The FCC is expected in February to release its national broadband plan, which will propose strategies to make high-speed Internet available to the roughly one-third of American homes that lack it.