There’s no denying that the Digital Television Transition is a complicated issue. Even those of us who work on it all the time sometimes have difficulty keeping all of the technical details straight. Some people seem confused over whether a box is always necessary to keep watching TV.

Here’s one example. Earlier this week, on a Public Radio program dealing with current technology issues, that subject of the coming DTV transition was discussed:

Host: How do I make sure that my TV doesn’t go blank on February 17?

Guest: What you have to do is look at how TV gets to your TV. If you subscribe to satellite or you subscribe to cable, and in either case you have a box, some kind of tuner or digital video recorder connected to your TV, you don’t have to do anything. Any digital conversion that is necessary is done in that box. At worst, your cable or satellite company will ship you a new box at some point. The tricky issue is people who either…

Host: Have cable without a box.

Guest: Yes. They have a cable ready TV and they just subscribe to basic or expanded basic so that they’re used to the joy of watching TV with only remote control on the coffee table. They may need to get a box where they didn’t have one before because the cable companies – and this is actually separate from the digital transition in a certain sense – they only have to keep providing a very basic set of channels in an unencrypted analog form that you can get with your cable ready TV.

Here’s another example: In the latest edition of the Bose newsletter, there’s the same error. It says that you’ll need to do nothing for the transition if “You subscribe to digital cable TV.” Further down, it states that it is a “Myth” that cable subscribers are ready for the changeover, suggesting that cable subscribers who receive analog service will be left out.

The source of the confusion seems to be that two topics are combined. It’s important to remember that this DTV Transition is only for the over-the-air broadcast industry. Cable is going through its own “digital transition.” Because of that word “digital,” the two often get confused.

What will cable subscribers need to do in preparation for the DTV Transition next February? The current information is that cable customers – whether or not they have a set-top box – will still be able to watch television after Feb. 17, 2009. At the same time, the cable industry has been moving towards a digital platform; as part of that, sometimes operators will move channels from the analog tier to the digital tier, which then needs a digital set-top box for reception.

Bottom line: If you have cable service, you should be fine, with the set-top box as an irrelevant factor. However, if you want to get access to cable’s newer services, such as hi-def TV or digital video recorders, or if you want to see the hundreds of programming choices available through the digital cable platform, you’ll need to have the appropriate set-top box. You can avoid having a box by purchasing a Digital Cable Ready television, but the current sets are only one-way, which means you won’t have access to interactive services. However, the tru2way standard will address this issue.

As always, you can visit the Get Ready for Digital TV site for more information (también en Español).

You’ve heard about those DTV converter boxes that you can get a coupon for. News today that the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has partnered with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) on an upgrade of the nine-year-old site AntennaWeb.org, “an online antenna mapping program designed to help users determine the proper outdoor antenna to use in order to receive free local broadcast channels.”

In other news, the DTV Transition Coalition, of which NCTA is a founding member, put out a media release on Friday pointing out their tremendous growth in membership. It’s a long and varied list that includes “consumer groups, broadcast, cable and consumer electronics companies, retailers, civil rights and grassroots organizations, trade associations, and state and local government organizations.”

NCTA today filed comments at the FCC in the “Broadband Industry Practices” proceeding in opposition to two petitions (from Free Press and Vuze) requesting that the Commission enact new regulation that would restrict the ability of broadband service providers to manage their networks to provide a better customer experience.

To quote from NCTA’s media release:

With the FCC’s 2005 adoption of a Policy Statement concerning broadband service, NCTA said that the Commission has already taken the correct approach – one of vigilant restraint – to ensure that the rapidly changing marketplace for broadband services develops in a way that best meets the needs of consumers. Importantly, the Commission’s 2005 Policy Statement expressly recognized that its broadband principles were “subject to reasonable network management,” NCTA said.

These seem to be the two key phrases: vigilant restraint and reasonable network management. In other words, broadband Internet services have evolved over time, responding to marketplace needs, and for the FCC to impose regulations would be, as the filing says, “likely to do more harm than good.” Further, network management “makes it possible to offer consumers access to the broadest possible array of services, sites and applications.”

The issue of network management has arisen with the growth of peer-to-peer services which are designed not only to download large files for long periods of time but also make their computers available as servers that constantly upload files for use by others. The use of peer-to-peer services by only a small fraction of Internet customers can consume a very large portion of the network’s resources and capacity which can interfere with the use and enjoyment of the Internet by other customers. So, without reasonable network management techniques, heavy usage of peer-to-peer services can degrade the overall speed of Internet access for all customers.

The filing enumerates some of the key points behind this approach:

• Not all applications use bandwidth in the same way.
• Content agnostic management of a network is not “censorship” or an anticompetitive technique to harm other services.
• Approaches to managing networks are best decided by network providers, rather than by the government.

This discussion reminds me of a point made in a Washington Post editorial almost two years ago:

If you want innovation on the Internet, you need better pipes: ones that are faster, less susceptible to hackers and spammers, or smarter in ways that nobody has yet thought of. The lack of incentives for pipe innovation is more pressing than the lack of incentives to create new Web services.

Today’s filing concludes by pointing out that there are a number of open questions about the best way to improve consumers’ experience of the Internet. Regulation would only put up a roadblock on the path to figuring out the right approaches.

We’re coming up pretty quickly on the official start to the One Year Countdown to the Digital Television Transition.

On the off-chance that the preceding sentence was complete gibberish to you, let me step back and explain. The DTV Transition refers to the coming switch from analog to digital over-the-air broadcast television. Congress has mandated that after February 17, 2009, full power television stations will stop broadcasting in analog, and will broadcast in digital exclusively. Changing over to a digital format will create efficiencies in the use of the radio frequency spectrum on which the nation’s TV broadcasters transmit their signals. Some of the old spectrum that’s freed up will be made available to first-responders such as local police and fire departments and will enhance the way they react to emergencies, which will significantly increase public safety for all Americans.

That phrase “full power broadcast TV stations,” however, is a really important distinction, as the FCC’s website points out:

While the majority of consumers in the U.S. can receive the programming of full-power over-the-air stations, there are three other categories of broadcast TV stations – “low-power,” “Class A,” and “translator” stations. There is currently no statutory deadline for these stations to convert to digital broadcasting.

That page defines what these stations are, but it’s useful to remember that not every station broadcasting in America is going to be transitioning next year.

But there is a solution: analog pass-through in digital-to-analog converter boxes. You’ve possibly heard that you can buy a converter box that will let your old analog TV sets receive and display over-the-air digital signals. There are some of these boxes that will also “pass-through” an analog signal, in addition to performing the conversion for the digital ones.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has a list of converter boxes that are eligible for their coupon program, which allows consumers to apply to receive up to two vouchers that offer a significant discount off the price of the converters. That list clearly marks the models that are “capable of passing through an analog signal to the TV set.” Right now, there are three such boxes, but it is expected that additional models will be available in the future.

For more info on the DTV Transition, you can visit the cable industry’s website GetReadyForDigitalTV.com or the NTIA’s website on this topic. If you’re a cable customer, the good news is that for any of your TVs hooked up to cable, you shouldn’t have to do anything to continue enjoying full power broadcast TV stations in their new digital format, whether you have a hi-def television or not.

This series examining the OECD broadband rankings has focused so far on methodology problems with the numbers.  But even despite the study’s flaws, there is a need to discuss the current state of broadband adoption and ways it can be increased.

Ensuring every American has access to broadband is a shared goal of industry and government.  Indeed, with the sheer volume of information available online, it is important for Americans to have access to this resource if they want it.

Statistics aside, everyone should have access to broadband

The Internet has dramatically changed the way we communicate and access news, entertainment, and information.  People who use the Internet every day for work or leisure may look fondly at days before we were so connected but never want to give up their access to this valuable medium.

The OECD stats, unfortunately, give people a reason not to explore some of the root issues related to broadband adoption (adoption, not deployment).  These rankings tempt people to focus on the state of availability rather than asking why consumers aren’t connecting to services that are already available.

However, like most consumer products and services, there are those who will simply resist the trend.  A Parks Associates study last year found that 29% of all U.S. households do not have any form of Internet access and do not intend to subscribe over the next 12 months.   That wasn’t really news, but the reasons cited were:

• 44% said they were not interested in anything on the Internet
• 17% were not sure how to use the Internet
• 14% stated that they have Internet access at work

Only 14% of this disinterested group cited cost of a computer as the reason and another 8% cited cost of HSI service.  Only 3% of the respondents claimed that HSI service was not available to their home.

Further, a Pew Internet & American Life Project  study estimates that approximately 15% of U.S. households still rely on dial-up service and nearly 60% of these dial-up users said they are not interested in switching to broadband.

Cable Internet service passes 92% of U.S. homes.  Throw in broadband via satellite and you’re nearing 100%.  Look at the Parks study again and consider that first number — 44% of offline Americans believe the Internet offers nothing of interest to them.  The Pew Study draws its own conclusions about the difficulty of growing this number.

Non-internet users do not have very positive attitudes about information technology.  Many report worries about information overload and few link information technology to greater control over their lives… Given that these non-users are people with worries about information technology and not a lot of extra disposable income, luring them online won’t be an easy task.

Another aspect that is largely ignored in this discussion is the simple truth that some consumers simply choose not to use the Internet.  There are still people in the US who have no phone service, and there are an estimated 13-20 million US households that rely solely on over-the-air broadcast TV.  As hard as this is for those who are connected to accept, there are simply a lot of people unconcerned with the consumption of mass media and telecommunications technology.

Nobody should be left behind

Disinterest in the Internet aside, however, these services should be readily available to anyone who wants access to them.  Connected Nation, a non-profit organization committed to increasing broadband adoption, is working to ensure both availability (by identifying and mapping areas that are unserved) and demand (by dispelling the idea that “nothing interesting is on the Internet”).

Connected Nation is supported by a growing number of states and major players in the telecommunications space and is trying to improve broadband access to unserved areas and get people connected.

The real state of broadband deployment

Using studies to misrepresent the current state of broadband availability and clamor for the government to either mandate deployment or simply jump into the broadband business is misguided.  As Pew noted:

With home broadband penetration poised to surpass 50% this year [Note: By our estimation it is now slightly greater than 50%], it will have taken 9 years from the time the service became widely available for residential high-speed service to reach half the population. To put this in context, it took 10 years for the compact disc player to reach 50% of consumers, 15 years for cell phones, and 18 years for color TV. Each of those technologies, like broadband, represented an upgrade from a good or service with which most consumers had experience.

Citizens in the US are adopting broadband at a rate almost unmatched in the history of technology.  Anyone who wants to get connected should be able to do so.

Connected Nation is working with states and Congress to gather data on broadband availability, so government resources can be focused on areas where citizens have no access at all.  Cable is working with them to achieve that goal.

We should not, however, rush to the government to insert itself in the marketplace when the metrics used to make the argument are questionable and the market is already growing at a fast pace.