The end of the cable set-top box? Yes, Comcast says

THE END OF THE CABLE SET-TOP BOX? YES, COMCAST SAYS
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Zoë Slocum]
Comcast, the United States' largest cable operator, says the set-top box's days are numbered. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday, CEO Brian Roberts predicted in a keynote address that by the end of the year, "virtually the entire cable industry will support Tru2way," an "open cable" standard that would render the bulky boxes moot by directly integrating any U.S. cable provider's service with a variety of devices. Initial partners in the Tru2way endeavor include Motorola, TiVo, Intel, Samsung Electronics, Microsoft, LG Electronics, Cisco Systems, and Sun Microsystems. The Consumer Electronics Association has argued that Tru2way would not be the truly open system that the Federal Communications Commission wants because it would not be compatible with the technologies of noncable video suppliers. Ahem, DirecTV and Verizon Fios? The "era of closed cable" may be coming to an end, as Roberts said, but the wars between providers of television, broadband, and telephone services are far from over.
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