Ars Technica Looks At The Last 40 Years Since The Carterphone Decision

Take a look at the FCC's best rulings, and there you will find Carterfone. You will find it, for example, in the agency's 1998 decision to let consumers pick and choose their own cable set top boxes. "Subscribers have the right to attach any compatible navigation device to a multichannel video programming system," the Commission declared. "We conclude that the core requirement, to make possible the commercial availability of equipment to MVPD subscribers, is similar to the Carterfone principle adopted by the Commission in the telephone environment."