[opendtv] Re: FCC Chairman, at CES, hedges on shutoff date for analog TV
- From: "Bob Miller" <robmxa@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:48:39 -0500
Storm clouds are rising! There are a lot of people who would like to
start using the licenses they paid for. Some years ago. Some who have
already suffered a delay of THREE years.
Bob Miller
On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Manfredi, Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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."
>
> All materials on this site Copyright (c) 2009 TechInsights, a Division
> of United Business Media LLC. All rights reserved.
>
>
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