There’s been some heartening news about the transition to all-digital broadcasting in recent days.

First, the agency in charge of issuing $40 coupons to help consumers buy digital-to-analog converter boxes has begun clearing a backlog of more than four million applications that piled up after the program ran out of money in January.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an arm of the Commerce Department, says it hopes to have the backlog cleared within two or three weeks. NTIA got an additional $650 million for the coupon program as part of the recently-approved economic stimulus package.

As part of the deal, NTIA plans to allow millions of people whose coupons have expired to reapply for new ones, although the details of the reapplication process are still being hashed out.

We have blogged at length about the ongoing travails of the coupon program over the past year. We are hopeful it is now fixed enough to allow consumers to get coupons and purchase their DTV converter boxes before the new DTV deadline on June 12th. One thing we are sure about is that millions of consumers who depend on free, over-the-air television would have been left in the lurch if the government had moved ahead with the original cutover date on February 17th.

On a related front, the Federal Communications Commission appears to be working much harder than in the past in its education and assistance efforts ahead of the June 12th cutover.

Published reports say the agency is also in the process of letting contracts to beef up its telephone help line and create additional walk-in help centers. In addition, the agency is reported to be negotiating with grassroots and community organizations to actually install converter boxes for the elderly and other at risk populations.

We hope the agency will move quickly to get these operations up and running, especially the “boots on the ground” approach of helping out those who need the help the most in navigating the digital transition.

Required Reading

The New York Times put out a terrific, three-part blog this week looking at the gap in the price and availability of broadband in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

You can read the blogs here, here and here.

In clear and understandable language, the series goes through the various reasons many other developed countries have faster and cheaper broadband service than we do.

Here’s a taste.

“In the paradises of broadband — Japan, South Korea and Sweden — nearly everyone can surf far faster and far cheaper than anyone in the United States. What is their secret sauce and how can we get some?
The short answer is that broadband deployment in those countries was spurred by a combination of heavy government involvement, subsidies and lower corporate profits that may be tough for the economic and political system in the United States to accept. Those countries have also tried to encourage demand for broadband by paying schools, hospitals and other institutions to use high-speed Internet services.”

We highly recommend the series to anyone who wants to understand not only the problems, but also some possible solutions.