Displaying the keen sense of timing and concern for taxpayers that so often is the hallmark of government, the House today failed to go along with the Senate, meaning that the delay in the scheduled Feb. 17 switchover to digital broadcasting has been, well, delayed.
Furious consumers for months have complained that the converter box coupons the government promised to provide have either not arrived or have been dead on arrival -- bearing expiration dates that predated their arrival. No one took the slighest heed until then-President-elect Obama said he would favor postponing the switchover.
Earlier this week, the Senate agreed and voted unanimously to delay the switchover until June 12 but now the House, which had appeared ready to go along, failed to get the two-thirds vote needed to pass the measure on a fast-track basis, voting 258-168 in favor of the measure.
House leaders say they may try again in a week or two, when they would need only a simple majority.
The transition to digital broadcasting involves a frequency swap of relatively massive proportion. Television broadcasters will be moving to new frequencies, opening up their old spectrum spots to mobile wireless, public safety agencies and so forth.
In theory, the switch is good for everyone: more data gets moved around in less spectrum space and over-the-air viewers get more channels to choose from. Also, the government rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars by auctioning off the old frequencies.
Viewers who subscribe to cable or satellite service won't be affected, and those with newer, digital television sets will -- at least theoretically -- be able to receive the new signals, although the transmission range of the new frequencies is less than the old ones.
Lawmakers say a delay would give engineers time to work out a solution. But unless they can find a way to change the laws of physics, that's not likely. The new frequencies will always have a shorter range than the old ones, barring some unimagined breakthrough not likely to be achieved by any of the agencies involved in this confusing soap opera.
Congress appropriated money -- taxpayer money, let's remember -- to compensate consumers for the purchase of up to two digital converter boxes for their analog TVs, but many consumers were confused about whether they needed one or not. And it now turns out that even with a converter box, some of these consumers still won't be able to receive digital signals. Lawmakers say the delay will give engineers time to work out a solution.
Problems in the program began popping up early last year. The process has spawned Consumer Complaints of consumer complaints.
Despite the big bucks in reaped from the auction of the frequencies and Congress' "generosity" in allocating the people's own money to help them make the switch, the government's program to help consumers make the switch to digital TV recently ran out of money. That stopped the flow of vouchers -- outdated and otherwise -- that consumers could use to purchase digital converter boxes.
What happened to all the money from the frequency auctions? Oh, Congress -- whose sole function, after all, is to spend money -- spent that somewhere else. Sorry.
