Your bulk cable contract is about to expire, and you’re thinking about bringing in a new cable provider…but there’s a problem.  The incumbent provider doesn’t want you to terminate its services, and delivers an ominous edict: If you don’t renew our contract, we’re going to remove all of the wiring in your building.

Can they do that?  Can an incumbent provider remove all cable wiring in your multiple-dwelling-unit building (or “MDU”) simply because it wants to?  You think, “There ought to be a law against that….”  Turns out, there is.

Setting the Stage

Consider this scenario: In 2000, your homeowners association signed a 10 year deal with the cable company, “Cable Unlimited” (a fictitious company for the purposes of this scenario.)  The agreement stated that Cable Unlimited would provide cable television services for residents of your MDU through 2010.  Cable Unlimited also installed all of the cable wiring in the MDU, and the agreement stated that Cable Unlimited would remain the owner of that wiring at all times.  In the event the agreement was terminated, the agreement stated that Cable Unlimited had the right (but not the obligation) to remove all of the components of the cable system, including all wiring installed or used by Cable Unlimited.

Let’s add a few more facts: Cable Unlimited’s services have been awful.  The cable signal quality has been poor, and the company’s customer service has been virtually non-existent.

Under that backdrop, another cable vendor, Superior Cable, offers to provide its cable television services to the Association at a reduced bulk rate, and presents the Association with a plan that has more channels and guarantees superior customer service. 

Cable Unlimited learns of the Association’s plan to terminate its agreement, and sends a certified letter to the president of the  Association saying, in sum, that if Cable Unlimited’s agreement is not renewed, then Cable Unlimited will pull all of its wiring out of the MDU—essentially leaving the building without any means to deliver a cable signal to its residents.

Sound familiar?  Read on.

The FCC & Sheet Rock: Perfect Together

            In July 2007, the Federal Communications Commission (fondly known as the “FCC”) issued an order known as the Sheet Rock Order.  In most cases—including the scenario above—that Order irons out the issues involved in a cable company’s threat to “pull all of its wiring.”

In order to understand the Order, you need to know the definitions of two important terms: “demarcation point” and “cable home wiring.”

            With certain rare exceptions, a “demarcation point” is a point approximately twelve inches outside of where a cable wire enters a MDU subscriber’s apartment.  If that wire is physically inaccessible at that twelve-inch point (because, let’s say, the wire leaves the subscriber’s apartment and then runs above a drywall ceiling or behind the drywall in the hallway of the MDU), then the demarcation point is the closest practicable point to that twelve-inch spot that does not require access to the subscriber’s apartment.

            “Cable home wiring” refers to the wiring that exists inside of a subscriber’s apartment.  This would include, for example, cable wiring that enters a resident’s apartment and runs behind the resident’s walls.   

            Now, back to the Order……..

            In combination with other FCC rules, the Order provides that all cable home wiring (remember, that’s the wiring that runs from inside a subscriber’s apartment to the demarcation point outside of the subscriber’s apartment) belongs to the MDU owners—not the cable company.  

If the demarcation point is physically inaccessible (meaning, “behind drywall or cement”, or “behind a ceiling”, or “simply too darn hard to access under normal circumstances”), then the cable home wiring is extended to the point where the wire comes out from behind the wall or ceiling. 

            Given this, in our hypothetical scenario, Cable Unlimited could not pull any of the cable wire residing inside of any subscriber’s apartment, nor could Cable Unlimited pull any of the wiring up to the demarcation point.  Remember: this is true regardless of the fact that Cable Unlimited installed the wiring and proclaimed control over it. (I don’t care which cable provider you’re dealing with—they don’t trump the FCC).

If the demarcation point was inaccessible to Cable Unlimited because, let’s say, the wiring ran behind a wall (as opposed to residing behind crown molding in the hallway, which is easily accessible), then Cable Unlimited could not remove any of the wiring before the point at which the wiring came out from behind the wall.  In some cases, the demarcation point might be several feet from a resident’s apartment, or as far away as a utility closet located on the other side of the hallway or building!

So what wiring can the cable company remove?  Answer: Assuming the cable company owns the wiring, it can remove everything except the cable home wiring. Usually this means that the cable company can remove only the vertical wiring in the building, i.e., the wiring that brings the signal from the outside of the building to each floor of the MDU.  That, however, is an expensive endeavor which virtually all cable companies are loathe to do.  (As an interesting side note, I have never seen a cable company invest the time and money to remove vertical wiring, no matter how vociferously they threaten to do so.)

            So the next time a cable provider threatens to pull your MDU’s wiring, let them know that you’re aware of the Sheet Rock Order.  It may mean the difference between staying with a cable provider you hate, or improving dramatically the cable services available to your MDU.