The FCC has voted unanimously to take a new look at cable rate regs with an eye toward lifting regs on smaller operators and some on larger ones as well, while FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly took the opportunity to call for broader cable dereg. 

The item was a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) combined with a report and order, so stakeholders can comment before a vote on a final order for the NPRM. The Report and Order takes the regulatory whacker into the weeds, getting rid of rules the FCC says are obsolete, like ones linked to non-basic service no longer regulated; or are unnecessary given current industry practices, or for other reasons. It also sunsets some obsolete forms.

Among the R&O's other housecleaning measures is to codify that where an operator offers its equipment for sale and lease, the sale price is unregulated.

It is just one of the latest potential regulatory underbrush-clearing in FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's Media Modernization efforts and one of two approved at the Oct. 23 monthly public meeting--the other was on broadcast contracts.