Tech, Safety Sectors Laud Timing Of Digital Television Transition

Officials in the technology and public-safety communications arenas applauded Senate draft legislation that would set April 7, 2009, as the "hard date" to end analog television transmissions. The draft, circulated late last Thursday by aides to Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, calls for 60 megahertz of spectrum to be auctioned and 24 MHz to go to public safety as a result of the transition to digital television. Public safety officials praised the bill. "Great news on the federal 911 funding front!" said Patrick Halley, government affairs director for the National Emergency Number Association, which helps administer "enhanced 911," or E911, emergency-dialing systems. He added that "it has been a challenge in the current budget climate to ensure appropriate funding" for a 2004 law that authorized -- but has not funded -- $250 million on E911 for each of five years. The program's current appropriation in a pending Senate bill is $5 million. By creating a "digital transition and public safety fund," the draft bill effectively would skirt appropriators on that and four other communications-related programs -- including the plan to subsidize set-top boxes for converting signals on analog televisions to digital. "I am hoping that somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 billion will be available for E911 grants," Halley said. "It is simple; it is basic; it gets the job done," Michael Petricone, vice president of the Consumer Electronic Association, said of the new bill.