WASHINGTON-Auction revenues from the sale of licenses for spectrum in the 700 MHz band made available with the transition to digital TV first should be used to provide set-top boxes for all of the TVs in America that rely on over-the-air broadcasting, said consumer advocates Wednesday.
“Consumers will already have to bear the inconvenience of acquiring new equipment to keep their otherwise perfectly good TVs working. They shouldn’t also have to fork over $50 per set. Since Congress is expected to raise more than $10 billion from the spectrum auction, why shouldn’t that money first be used to help consumers with the cost of keeping their TVs working? The first rule Congress must abide by is do no harm to consumers,” said Gene Kimmelman, public policy director for Consumers Union.
CU and the Consumer Federation of America released a study indicating that four out 10 households have at least one TV that relies on over-the-air broadcasting even if other TVs in the home receive their signals via cable or satellite.
“Estimates on the number of TVs that will need converter boxes have varied greatly. Electronics-industry groups estimate the number as low as 33 million, while consumer groups, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the Government Accountability Office estimate the number to be 65 million or more,” said the consumer groups in a statement accompanying the report.
In 1997, Congress said that in 2007, broadcasters would have to return the extra 6 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band given to TV broadcasters to facilitate the DTV transition. But TV broadcasters could keep the spectrum if more than 15 percent of the homes in their viewing areas could not receive digital signals. Removing the caveat has become known as establishing a hard date and has been widely encouraged by the wireless industry, which wants access to some of the spectrum.
The House and Senate Commerce committees have been tasked with trying to find more than $4 billion to help reduce the federal budget deficit. It is believed this money could be raised by the sale of licenses for spectrum in the 700 MHz band, but no sale will be effective until a hard date is set.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, recently introduced the Save Lives Act, which includes a $463 million subsidy for low-income households to receive set-top boxes if they rely exclusively on over-the-air broadcasting. McCain’s bill would set a hard date at Dec. 31, 2008.
“We can only support a hard-date transition if the costs of that transition are not borne by the consumers who have done nothing wrong and if the spectrum is made available in a way that promotes more competition,” added Kimmelman.
The Congressional Wireless Caucus also weighed in on the DTV date Tuesday afternoon hosting a luncheon highlighting the needs of public safety, which is slated to get 24 megahertz of the 700 MHz spectrum.
“We are doing better on information sharing than we are doing on interoperable communications,” said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), who has introduced the Hero Act to keep the original Dec. 31, 2006, as a hard date and was celebrating her birthday Tuesday. “Please don’t let me go through another birthday without better news on interoperability.”
