The FCC has ruled that starting [[July 1]], [[2007]], cable customers are able to purchase DVRs and other 3rd party devices to legally view digital cable without having to rent hardware from the cable company.
In late 2006, a consortium of three small cable operators known as Beyond Broadband Technology (BBT) announced the development of a downloadable conditional access system in an affordable set-top box. The FCC has noted the development of this system in several of its integration ban orders. The BBT system passed alpha testing in the summer of 2007, and production is scheduled to begin as soon as the third quarter of 2008. The hardware is being manufactured by R.L. Drake of Franklin, Ohio, with the microprocessing chips being provided by STM Electronics.
