The federal government is considering loosening the qualification rules for $40 coupons meant to help defray the cost of digital television converter boxes to include nursing home residents and consumers who use post office boxes.
Such folks do not currently qualify to receive the coupons, which are being handed out by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an arm of U.S. Department of Commerce.
All full-power TV stations in the U.S. are to go all digital broadcasting no later than February 17, 2009, at which time they will stop broadcasting their traditional, over-the-air analog signal. Consumers who get programming through an antenna and do not have a newer-model digital TV set will need to buy a box that converts the digital signal to analog to continue receiving free, over-the-air television after that date.
Today NTIA published a notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment on allowing both nursing home residents and consumers using post office boxes to qualify to receive the DTV converter box coupons.
In its notice, NTIA estimates as many as 420,000 nursing home residents and 340,000 post office box users will qualify for coupons. There is 45-day public comment period on the proposed rule changes. NTIA officials predict the rule changes could take effect by this fall, if not sooner.
This is clearly good news for nursing home residents, one of the most vulnerable populations when it comes to free, over-the-air television. These consumers should have qualified for the coupons from the get go, but it is heartening to see NTIA moving to fix the oversight.
Nursing home residents will be able to qualify for one $40 coupon each. That’s in contrast to the current rule for households in general, which qualify for two coupons each.
The government’s original reasoning for disqualifying post office box users was somewhat more understandable – mainly concerns about fraud. The new rules would require PO box users to supply proof of residency – a driver’s license or utility bill, for example – to qualify to receive two coupons.
NTIA Clings to 90-Day Expiration Date for Coupons
While the new rule proposal is a welcome development, there is a potentially bigger oversight NTIA is choosing not to address – a 90-day expiration date on the DTV converter box coupons.
Many consumers applied for the coupons as soon as the government began offering them back in January. The coupons issued to those conscientious consumers will begin expiring next month.
The problem is that relatively few DTV converter boxes are currently on store shelves or available through online retailers. Most of the units now available cost $60 or more.
Echostar earlier this year announced plans to produce a $39.95 DTV converter box, meaning it would effectively be free for consumers with the $40 coupons. Echostar had originally said it hoped to have ample supplies of its boxes available by late spring, but that date has gradually been slipping to later in the year.
Consumers Union, the publisher of this blog, and many members of Congress have been urging NTIA to remove the expiration date or allow consumers with expired coupons to reapply for new ones, but the agency appears to have dug in on the issue.
Instead of changing the expiration date rules or seeking congressional approval to make such changes, the Commerce Department instead issued a remarkably unhelpful press release reminding consumers the nationwide switch to DTV is less than 300 days away.
“The first coupons mailed are set to expire at the end of May and I encourage all Americans who have ordered a coupon to purchase your eligible converter box within the 90-day required timeframe,” said U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez in a prepared statement issued yesterday.
That’s not exactly helpful, Mr. Secretary. It’s past time for you and your department to alter or eliminate the ridiculous 90-day expiration date on the DTV coupons. If not, Congress should move expeditiously to remove the expiration dates on the coupons.
