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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

FCC urges: Get TV converter ASAP

Supply of $40 coupons may be gone by Feb. 17

One of the five federal officials who approved the big switch to all-digital television urged Inland Northwest viewers to make needed equipment upgrades now. FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the government has set aside $1.5 billion for coupons worth $40 toward the purchase of digital converters. People who don’t have cable or satellite service and who have a TV made before 2003 will need a converter to watch TV after the Feb. 17 switch. But procrastinators could find all of the coupons gone, he warned.

“If that amount of money is used up, that’s all we’ll have,” Adelstein said Wednesday in Spokane. Consumers who still need converters would need to buy them at full price – $40 and up.

The coupon fund comes from the roughly $19 billion earned by the government this year when it auctioned off the broadcast spectrum now used for analog TV signals.

In advance of the digital conversion, Adelstein is visiting cities with larger-than-average numbers of people who rely on over-the-air signals to watch TV. He visited Spokane and Kootenai counties Wednesday. Nielsen Co. market data says about 17 percent of Spokane County’s households rely on analog TV signals, compared with a national average of 12 percent.

Adelstein cited another reason consumers should quickly make the switch to a digital converter: those inevitable technical glitches as they hook up the new equipment. Some viewers will struggle with the instructions and need help. And some converters require added steps, such as a scan for all available TV signals.

The Federal Communications Commission will have a 55-person call center operating before and after the week of the transition to answer viewers’ questions.

Even so, callers will face lengthy hold times during the week of the transition, he predicted. Last month, viewers in Wilmington, N.C., became the first in the nation to experience the conversion from analog to digital. The FCC chose that city for a trial run to identify likely problems.

Despite weeks of preparation and planning, officials in Wilmington received thousands of calls immediately after the switch.

“Based on that we can anticipate about 2 million phone calls to our call center the week of the transition,” Adelstein said.

It’s important that call centers are operated in other cities during the February transition, he said.

Spokane’s local TV stations tested a 20-person phone bank Wednesday evening to answer questions after some viewers were alerted that they’re not digital-ready.

The alerts, broadcast during the evening news, said, “If you’re seeing this, you’re not ready for the digital TV conversion on Feb. 17.” The message wasn’t visible to those who are digital-ready.

Area stations have agreed to operate the call center during the week of the transition, Adelstein said.

The switch will also challenge some North Idaho viewers. In some parts of Kootenai County, viewers will continue watching Spokane stations over analog translators, Adelstein said.

Those viewers will need a converter that has a “pass-through” option that doesn’t turn the signal into a digital one.

At the same time, some North Idaho viewers with high-quality outdoor antennas won’t need the analog translators. Those viewers will need a digital-ready TV or a converter box if they are not subscribers to cable or satellite service, Adelstein said.

“This is a complicated thing with a lot of local factors,” he said.

Contact Tom Sowa at (509) 459-5492 or toms@spokesman.com.