DTV hard date-Feb. 17, 2009-sails toward Bush approval

[Gregg Lengling]

WASHINGTON-Finally! Congress has told TV broadcasters that they must give up the spectrum they were given to transition to digital TV by Feb. 17, 2009.
After an unexpected delay caused by an unrelated procedural move in the Senate, the House passed the Budget Reconciliation Act that contained the hard date for the DTV transition. The bill now goes to President George W. Bush. He is expected to sign it.

"The DTV legislation is truly a win-win initiative. Not only will it free up needed spectrum for our nation's first responders, but it will also allow our innovative industry to roll out advanced wireless data services to all Americans," said CTIA President Steve Largent. "This is a significant public-policy victory, as there is little doubt it will make our nation more secure and technologically advanced."

In December, the Senate passed its version of the federal budget with Vice President Richard Cheney breaking the 50-50 tie. However, since it was not exactly the same bill that had passed the House earlier and lawmakers had already left town for their winter break, the wireless industry and public safety were forced to wait to see if Congress would set a hard date.

In 1997, Congress said that broadcasters in 2007 would have to return an extra 6 megahertz of spectrum they were given 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. The hard date would eliminate this caveat. Once the spectrum is available, 24 megahertz is going to public safety and the rest to commercial uses. Some of the commercial spectrum has already been auctioned.

The Congress Budget Office has estimated the value of the DTV spectrum at around $10 billion. Private estimates have reached as high as $30 billion.

The budget bill sets aide $1 billion to aid public-safety interoperability and creates a fund to subsidize set-top converter boxes for people who receive TV signals over the air.

Since the government expects to garner revenues from selling the spectrum, the DTV bill was included as part of the 2006 budget-reconciliation process. The bill also says the auctions must start before Jan. 28, 2008.

If the spectrum auction raises more than $10 billion, a fund would be created to give enhanced 911 grants, according to the bill.