NTIA to Seek $450 Million More in DTV Coupon Funds

With people only now starting to redeem the $40 coupons, no one can say when the funds that have been approved will run out, Baker said in an interview. Existing funds may last until the program ends, several months after the Feb. 17 DTV transition, she added. At the average daily rate of 104,078 coupons requested since the program began Jan. 1 and through Friday, the 22.25 million coupons budgeted for in the current phase of the program would run out Aug. 2, according to data on NTIA’s Web site. Baker said “spikes” in demand complicate the job of predicting it. Figures for spending on the coupon program exclude administrative costs.

The goal is “to make sure that the program moves smoothly,” Baker said. “I would expect that I'll go ahead and ask for the second tranche of money… so we don’t have to stop and start the program” if funds run out, she told the conference. Many on Capitol Hill are asking when the money will run out, she said: “I think a lot of people are asking that now.” Other NTIA officials are reviewing a draft letter she plans to send House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., seeking congressional approval for the second phase of the coupon program, Baker told us. The letter also must get Office of Management and Budget approval, she added.

NTIA doesn’t know when it will decide whether to extend coupons’ 90-day shelf life, as Dingell and other lawmakers want, Baker said. If the 90-day limit is extended, holders of expired coupons might get new ones by mail. The agency mails about a million coupons weekly, a rate it may be able to increase slightly, she said. By May it will have worked its way through backlogged requests, she said. At that point, people ordering coupons will get them within two to three weeks, said Baker.

Some who asked for vouchers shortly after NTIA began taking requests Jan 1. still haven’t gotten them. That’s because the agency isn’t mailing coupons until it’s certain that retailers near recipients are stocking converters, Baker told us: “We still have to watch the number of boxes on the shelves.” A draft NTIA order would let nursing home residents get coupons, she told the conference. The order also would let coupons be sent to post office boxes, she said. But it could take several months for those orders to be enacted, according to those familiar with the process.

The agency has certified more than 60 models of converter box as eligible for coupons, Baker said. Six pass through the signals from low-power TV stations that will be broadcasting in analog after the transition, she said. More passthrough boxes may be certified, Baker added: “There are a whole bunch on the runway that are going to come through and going to become available.”

Lawmakers shouldn’t tax online activities, Baker said. “Don’t tax the Internet,” she said. “That’s going to help Internet video, that’s going to help broadband” deployment. The government must be “very careful” in considering whether to tell broadband network operators whether they can block or slow down certain traffic, such as peer to peer file transfers, said Baker.

Network management and net neutrality will occasion much debate in coming months, Baker said. “We're going to be discussing these things for a while,” she said. “I don’t endorse this, but I think content regulation is going to be important as we move forward.” Attention will be paid to what’s indecent, such as whether it’s OK for an adult to be watching explicit video on a subway with children nearby, she said. A priority for the next administration will be broadband deployment, particularly in undeserved areas, Baker predicted.

The government should provide more spectrum to companies for wireless and other uses, she said. Circumstances around the D block, offered in the 700 MHz auction and now to be resold, are “incredibly complex,” she said. “I don’t envy the FCC in deciding what to do with the D block at this point, but I hope they move quickly.”