Undaunted in his previous attempts at curbing the growth of cable operators (arguably to the benefit of incumbent telcos), FCC Chairman Kevin Martin managed to get the commission to pass a rule to prevent cable operators from growing past 30% of the available national subscribers. The 70/70 rule used to restrict them comes from major telecommunications legislation from 1934 and 1984 that aims to prevent providers from totally dominating markets.
Predictably, Congress is threatening to change up the way the FCC can assert itself and cable operators have become emboldened to sue for the right to exclusive contracts in MDUs. There's also a Congressional probe in the works to poke around the various leaks, disregard for proper procedure and abuse of power. Given the strong-arming he's used on Big Cable and the light touch on Ma Bell, it seems like more oversight is overdue.
