FCC Chairman, at CES, hedges on shutoff date for analog TV David Benjamin (01/10/2009 7:52 PM EST) URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212701725 LAS VEGAS - -- Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin opened the door here Saturday (Jan. 10th) -- if only slightly -- to the possibility that the FCC might cooperate with the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama in delaying the nationwide switch-over, scheduled on February 17th, from analog to digital television broadcast. The prospect of postponing the widely publicized but oft-delayed digital conversion emerged Thursday (Jan. 9th) when the head of Obama's transition team, John Podesta, wrote a letter to key members of Congress claiming that "the most vulnerable Americans" -- those without satellite or cable TV service, many elderly or poor or located in remote and mountainous areas -- were ill-informed and unprepared for the big day. On Saturday, in a one-on-one session at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Martin defended the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) -- the agency responsible for completing the digital switch. However, Martin faulted a coupon program, managed by NTIA, that was supposed to provide every terrestrial-broadcast TV owner a $40 subsidy to buy an analog/digital conversion box. As of this week, according to Podesta and other critics, some 7.8 million analog consumers (6.8 percent of all the TVs in the U.S.) lack conversion boxes, while the NTIA has run out of $40 coupons and has no money to issue new ones. Martin agreed that the coupon program has stumbled. "We've seen increased demand and as a result the program doesn't have enough resources." In fact, the NTIA has exhausted its budget of $1.34 billion for conversion boxes and is requesting another $500 million from Congress. Asked by his interviewer, Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) Chairman Gary Shapiro, if -- despite criticism and the wishes of the Obama team -- he preferred to 'hold firm" on February 17th, Martin said he did, but with a Kiplingesque caveat: "if we can figure out how to solve the coupon problem without moving the date." Martin, although disappointed in the coupon program, deflected blame from the NTIA to Congress, which included in its digital conversion legislation a requirement that all coupons expire within 90 days. Currently, there are 13 million unredeemed and expired coupons somewhere in circulation. Martin then tacitly agreed with Podesta's letter in saying that the decision on a delay is "up to Congress." It was impossible to determine, since Shapiro failed to press Martin on this point, whether the FCC Chairman was thus washing his hands of the affair, or subtly nudging fellow Republicans in Congress to go along with Podesta's request to put off the analog shutoff. Indeed, Podesta'a letter effectively backed the Bush administration and the FCC into a corner by putting out the word that America is not truly poised to make the digital leap. If, as feared, millions of televisions go dark on February 17th and a public furor follows, the onus has been been fixed squarely on Obama's White House predecessors. Martin, who will remain on the FCC after ceding his Chairmanship to an Obama appointee, insisted that, regardless of current concerns, the Bush administration had "spent a lot of time and energy making sure that everyone knows about February 17th." Shapiro noted that public awareness had recently been measured as high as 95 percent. However, a hail of criticism preceded Martin's CES appearance. Two of Martin's fellow FCC commissioners, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, have spoken in support of delaying the analog shutoff. As early as last September, the Government Accounting Office warned that the government was unprepared for an anticipated surge in demand for the $40 coupons -- which are intended to cover the majority of the cost of conversion boxes priced from $50 to $100. The waiting list is expected to reach 1.5 million by February 17th. Referring to a federal auction held last year for the 700 MHz spectrum that will be freed by the conversion, Joel Kelsey, policy analyst for the Consumers Union, said, "The federal government is getting $19 billion from selling the analog TV spectrum, while people with analog TVs have to go out and spend their own money for a converter box. Everyone affected by the digital switch should be able to get their $40 coupons." According the the FCC's Martin, however, the result of a delay would be more dire than proceeding with the switch on schedule. "I am concerned about the confusion that can be created," he said. Another argument against delay, not expressed by either Martin or the CEA's Shapiro, is the eagerness of the corporations that bought the 700 Mhz analog spectrum last year to proceed full speed ahead with their plans. Among the biggest spenders were AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone. According to Phil Goldstein of Fierce Wireless, "Verizon had planned to use the new spectrum allocation to begin laying the groundwork for the development of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, Verizon's chosen standard for 4G cellular technology." Against these best-laid plans are pitted a number of congressional Democrats, including Sen. John D. Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, whose rural West Virginia constituents are more likely than many Americans to "go dark" on February 17th. "The Obama administration," said Rockefeller, "deserves time to bring order to what has been an appallingly mismanaged process." 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