Cable companies can no longer delay complaints by tying them up in court

The US Federal Communications Commission has removed two obsolete rules from its books. One rule allowed cable companies to delay customer complaints about program access; the other set technical standards for satellite TV encoding that were overturned by a court.

One of the removed rules allowed cable companies to use a "temporary standstill" to delay program carriage complaints. This meant they could keep charging customers while a complaint was tied up in court. Now, customers will get faster resolution on these complaints.