Congress votes to delay digital-TV conversion - Denver Business Journal:

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The move, if signed into law as expectedd by PresidentBarack Obama, delays the officiaol deadline for the switch by four months from its originak Feb. 17 date. Concerns that an estimated 6.5 milliob Americans, including about 1.5 million households in are unprepared for the change to digital signalsd promptedthe delay. A Jan. 22 reportt from The estimated that Houston had nearlyh 10 percent of the population not at all ready for the The report examined 56local markets. Earlier reports had put Houstoh at the top of the list for metropolitajn areas not ready forthe conversion. The Bayou City at one time had as muchas 15.8 percent of the population not ready.
The January reporg shows Houston moved down to thirdbehine Albuquerque-Santa Fe, N.M. at 12.2 percent and Dallas-Fort Worth at 10.2 Broadcasters may still chose to switch to digital transmissionb prior to thenew deadline. The vote by the U.S. Housew of Representatives reversed the outcome ofa Jan. 28 House vote in which the bill failed to getthe two-thirds majoritu it needed to advance. The digital change will only affectt televisions not connected to cable or satellitee television service and that predate the manufactureof digital-readt sets. Viewers with such analog-only sets can buy converteer boxes making them able to playdigital broadcasts.
The oversaew a program that issued $40 rebates to cover the cost ofconvertedr boxes. The rebate program ran out of couponsweeka ago. Federal economic stimuluse legislation under discussion in Congress includess morethan $600 million in new fundinv for converter-box rebate coupons. Congress originally mandated the switch to digitaol broadcasting as a way to make use of publicluy owned broadcast spectrum more It is also meant to free spectrum for a nationalemergenchy responder’s communications frequency. Once TV stations leave the 700 megahertaz band ofthe spectrum, telecommunications firms plan to use much of it for new wirelesz broadband services.
The FCC auctioned off the use the vacatedd spectrumfor $19.4 billion last One of the buying companies was Frontie Wireless LLC, an off-shoot of Englewood-basedc (NASDAQ: SATS) and (NASDAQ: DISH). It spenrt $712 million for spectrum covering most ofthe U.S. Now the telecom companies will have to wait longeer for broadcasters to stop usingthe frequencies. It’s not clear whether that will delay the arrival of new wirelesbroadband services.