NTIA Fashioning $1.5B Box Program

The U.S. Commerce Department is several weeks away from soliciting public comment on a $1.5 billion subsidy program to help consumers purchase converter boxes to run analog-television sets after the cessation of analog-TV broadcasting in early 2009. Congress has ordered Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration to supervise the program, but lawmakers gave NTIA director John Kneuer just a few instructions on how to allocate the money and how to limit ways consumer may use it. As a result, the NTIA is planning to issue “by late July” a notice of inquiry that would seek public input on program details, NTIA spokesman Ranjit De Silva said Monday. The Office of Management and Budget has the document under review, he added.
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