DTV coupons: Concerns raised about the program

 

I am sorry to say that I was one of the ones that the coupon expired before I could use it. 

DTV coupons: Concerns raised about the program

 

Did you apply for your two $40 DTV coupon from the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration)? Have you gotten them yet, or maybe the clearly-marked envelopes containing the $40 debit cards somehow got "lost" in the mail? Or maybe you were denied because of some address snafu?

Or perhaps you got them—but the $40 discount cards expired before you could use them?

Those are the common complaints readers have raised in comments on blog posts regarding the digital TV transition, DTV coupons and digital converter boxes. At a Congressional hearing this week, our parent company, Consumers Union, raised another, broader concern about the coupon program which was meant to offset the set-top converter boxes that older analog TV will need to use after February 2009.)

Testifying before the Telecommunications and Commerce committees, Chris Murray, CU's Senior Counsel, was pleased to note that the program has mailed some 25 million coupons to date, with 10 million redeemed. But he worried that "the program will quickly find that more consumers want coupons than Commerce can commit to under the present budget. At some point before February, the coupon program will perhaps have to turn away (or delay sending coupons to) some number of citizens. We hope to be proved wrong, but believe policymakers should prepare for this contingency. Consumers were promised that the cost of the DTV transition wouldn't be on their dime."

As Murray noted, by one government estimate, more than 49 percent of coupons now issued have been redeemed. The NTIA has proposed taking $7 million from other, unused funds to cover administrative costs needed to redistribute unredeemed and expired coupons.

While that request seems like a good thing, don't hold your breath. According to a blog post by industry magazine Broadcasting & Cable, the NTIA most likely won't be able to act fast on solving consumers' issues with missing or expired coupons.

The head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration told Congress the NTIA still does not have the inclination or authority to reissue digital-TV-to-analog converter-box-subsidy coupons to households that did not or could not redeem them before the 90-day expiration date.

How's the DTV transition going for you? Feel free to voice your thoughts here or on HearUsNow.org.

—Paul Eng

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