This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A generation ago, federal regulators opened the way for consumers to buy telephones rather than rent them from the phone company. Now, the government has its sights on the television set-top boxes that consumers rent from cable or satellite companies and need to receive digital programming.

Beginning July 1, the Federal Communications Commission has ordered cable companies to supply only set-top boxes that can accept a so-called cablecard that slides into the set-top box and determines a customer's level of access to cable service. The change is meant to give consumers nationwide the option of buying their own set-top boxes - or TVs that can use the cablecard - rather than renting one.

That new freedom may soon trigger an old question. Is it better to own or rent? On average, cable companies charge $5 a month for a regular set-top box and $7 for one with a built-in digital video recorder, or DVR. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association estimates those costs will increase to $8 and $10, respectively, for a set-top box with a slot for a cablecard.

A standard box with no recording capability probably would retail for around $130 - the cost of renting for a little more than a year, according to Ian Olgeirson, a Denver-based cable analyst with SNL Kagan, a market-research company. The price of a DVR that can use a cablecard is expected to be much higher. TiVo Inc. sells a version for $700 but plans a less-expensive model.

But this buy-or-rent equation has many variables.

One is that the FCC rules will affect only customers with digital cable, a population that has grown to the point that for the first time, last year there were more digital cable subscribers than analog. Of 65 million cable households nationwide, 33 million have digital cable.

It has been 11 years since Congress voted to break the cable television industry's stranglehold on set-top boxes. When Congress rewrote the nation's communications laws in 1996, it envisioned a thriving retail market where subscribers could actually buy their own boxes rather than make monthly payments to the cable company in perpetuity.

Things haven't quite worked out that way. The retail market for the boxes has failed to materialize, and the cable industry has filed numerous appeals and continued to press a furious lobbying and public relations campaign to make sure it never does, foes say.

Come July 1, the FCC is set to mandate hardware changes in all new set-top boxes that it hopes will lead to a competitive market, though few analysts actually expect a sudden demand from consumers. Even if they did want to rush out and buy their own box, they may have a hard time finding an electronics store selling one.

Consumer-electronics makers such as LG Electronics Inc. and Panasonic Electronics said they don't expect a retail market anytime soon and that they have no plans to start making boxes for the retail market. Panasonic plans to compete with the dominant box makers Motorola Inc. and Scientific Atlantic to supply boxes to cable companies so they can lease them out to subscribers, but won't be rolling them out directly to consumers. Best Buy Co., the nation's largest dedicated consumer-electronics retailer, says it will stock the devices - but only if there is evidence of consumer demand.

Some new television sets and DVRs already come equipped with cablecard technology built in. Electronics makers and consumer groups, however, complain that cable companies have been reluctant to hand out the cards. Consumers already have bought 8 million digital TV sets and high-end DVRs ready to accept cablecards, but only 250,000 households have been able to obtain the cards from their cable companies.