Copps to Meet with Martin to Make Case for DTV Tests
LAS VEGAS -- FCC Commissioner Michael Copps plans to meet with Chairman Kevin Martin to make his case for testing how the DTV transition will work in at least a few trial markets before the February 2009 deadline for the nationwide changeover. Martin on Tuesday said he didn’t think there was enough time left to launch pilots to test for unanticipated problems, and that no cities have volunteered to participate (CD Jan 9 p3).
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“I've been talking up the idea of maybe doing some test or demonstration projects in a few different markets,” Copps said in an interview here at CES Wednesday. “I still think that’s doable. I understand the chairman maybe expressed a little doubt but I'm looking forward to talking to him more about this. He’s right. It’s late to be starting all of this. We should have been going down this path a long time ago.”
The FCC must start now if it wants to identify target communities to test the transition, Copps said. “You need to select them real soon and then you need to frontload the consumer education, really do that in an expedited process and turn off a station or two and see if that works and draw the appropriate conclusions from that and see what the problems and obstacles are,” he said. “You still have a little bit of time to list the obstacles and repair the problems before we do that big pulling of the lever on February 17, 2009.”
The digital transition has been a major topic at this year’s CES, especially given the key role of the consumer electronics industry. Acting NTIA Administrator Meredith Baker and others from that agency were at the conference in force to answer questions about the DTV coupon program. NTIA also had a booth on the show floor.