It’s just over a week until the nation’s full-power broadcasters are required to turn off their traditional analog signals and go all digital.

We expect their will be plenty of problems once the broadcasters flip the switch. Calls to the Federal Communications Commission assistance line tripled the day after broadcasters conducted a dry run last month, turning off their analog signals for a few minutes.

There will undoubtedly be hundreds of thousands of calls to the FCC when the real switchover kicks in next Friday, June 12.

That said, the FCC and the Obama Administration deserve a lot of credit for the efforts they have put in over the last few months to make sure the transition goes as smoothly as possible. Perhaps most important, one of the first things the Obama Administration did upon taking office was to extend the transition date from February 28th until June 12th. Although there was some substantial grousing about the date change among broadcasters and consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers, pushing the transition date back helped avoid a near certain disaster.

The Obama Administration and Congress also moved quickly to fix the troubled government coupon program to help consumers buy analog-to-digital converter boxes. This was vital. The program was out of money and hopelessly behind in filling coupon requests when the new administration took over. A couple of months later that backlog was gone and it appears that anyone who needs a converter box will be able to get a government coupon to help pay for it.

The FCC has gone to great lengths to make sure technical support is available to people who might have trouble installing their converter boxes, awarding contracts to provide more than 200,000 free, in-home installations. Among the groups doing that work will be Americorps and several other non-profits, as well as some more traditional techies including Best Buy’s Geek Squad. At the same time the FCC has made arrangements for more than 500 walk-in help centers nationwide.

On the other hand, there have been some who have sought to take advantage of the situation. There have been numerous reports of cable companies trying to convince consumers they need to subscribe to pay TV services in order keep getting the over-the-air channels they now get free. Such behavior is unscrupulous and needs to be investigated and punished.

Again, there will undoubtedly be some major problems on June 12th and the following days as millions of consumers make the transition. We fully expect new, unanticipated problems to surface once the final transition takes place.

But, again, government officials deserve a good deal of credit for moving quickly to avert the almost certain train wreck that loomed back in February.

For comprehensive information from Consumers Union/Consumer Reports on navigating the DTV transition, including ratings on analog-to-digital converter boxes, go to www.consumerreports.org/dtv.