Is it any surprise that we in the U.S. are not ready for the analog to digital switchover on February 17, and that we have everyone from consumers to Barack Obama asking to have the deadline pushed back? There are many reasons why this is so, but the biggest finger can be pointed at – surprise – the government.

First, this is a government mandate. The law requiring conversion to all digital television broadcasting was passed by Congress at the end of 2005 and signed into law by President Bush in February, 2006. This gave everyone three years to get ready for the change. Along with the mandate, funding was also legislated – $5 million for education and $1.5 billion (that’s BILLION) for the conversion box program.

Switching to digital broadcasting is not only a good idea, it’s a necessity. With the increasing amount of “over the air” communication devices we are using, bandwidth is a real issue. Digital broadcasting drastically reduces the amount of frequency space required for television. To use a crude (and admittedly problematic) analogy, it is like using a laser as opposed to a flashlight. You light up only one small spot instead of flooding the whole area with light. There never really was a question about switching from analog to digital broadcasting, only a question of when and how.

Was three years enough time? Considering the life span of television sets, perhaps not. It would have been nice to just let the system switch over by itself as more people bought televisions with digital tuners. In fact, the original law addressing a switch to all digital broadcasting was a 1997 law which mandated that analog broadcasting would end on December 31, 2006, or when eight-five percent of households were capable of receiving digital signals, whichever came first. As we got close to that date, there were nowhere near that many households able to receive digital signals, so Congress decided to step in with a new law before that deadline arrived.

When the new law was passed at the end of 2005, there were consumer groups complaining that there was not enough time or funding allowed to achieve the transition without disadvantaging certain groups, such as low-income families and elderly people. While these types of consumer groups always seem to wave a flag of dire warning over even the smallest of issues, in this case they were right, though not necessarily for the reasons they gave.

Some people say that there was not enough education of the public on the change. I’m sorry, but if you watched any television at any time during the last couple of years and still didn’t know about the changeover to digital broadcasting, then you either recorded all your television programs and skipped every commercial and public service announcement or you are dumb as a rock. Quite honestly, I do not know how you could not know about the change and I do not know how the broadcasters could have done anything more to make the public aware of the situation. As a matter of fact, I am downright sick of all the notices, warnings and tests.

The government coupon program that provides up to two coupons per family worth $40 each for the purchase of an analog to digital signal converter box has run out of funding, which really doesn’t matter much because there seems to be a short supply of the boxes anyway. Personally, I’m not convinced that the government should actually be responsible for paying part of the cost of the converter boxes, but I can at least understand the logic, based on the fact that the government is forcing the change. One would think that the government could have seen the funding shortfall coming. Of course, there is no reason that Congress can’t quickly pass a bill to add additional funds to the program. After all, they have no problem handing out money to businesses and banks that come crying to them. A little extra cash for the converter box program should be an easy vote.

Then there is the issue of the 90-day expiration of the coupons. The idea behind such a relatively short expiration date appears to have been that people would act sooner rather than later if the coupons expired quickly. Apparently Congress is no better at human psychology than they are at controlling spending. Almost any idiot, myself included, could have told them that people would wait until the last minute to deal with the changeover, allowing the coupons to expire – and they have – what a surprise!

Of course, the conversion from analog to digital is not as simple as Congress would have it be. It’s not just a matter of buying a converter box and slapping it on the old analog television. Digital signals operate differently than analog signals and people who once received marginal analog signals may be faced with no digital signal, or one so weak as to be useless. In addition to the converter box, many people will have to upgrade their antennas. An antenna that once may have been adequate to pull in a weak analog signal just won’t cut it for digital. Even with a new antenna, there are going to be situations where people will lose their television reception.

So what do we do at this point? Do we delay it, or do we go full-speed ahead. What are the problems with delaying it?

For one thing, the bandwidth that is saved by using digital broadcasting has already been auctioned off and the winning bidders have plans for those frequencies. Pushing back the date of availability of those frequencies will mean a loss of opportunity and income for those companies. If that happens, it seems to me that they should be entitled to a bit of a rebate from the government on their investment. I’m sure that will not happen if the changeover date is pushed back, but it does seem fair.

9/11, hurricanes, and other natural disasters have exposed vulnerabilities in the communications abilities of our emergency response agencies. The additional frequencies being freed up by the conversion to digital broadcasting will help facilitate the efforts to develop unified, or at least compatible, communications systems that are necessary during times of emergency. Pushing the conversion date back will also push those plans back.

And let’s face it – no matter what Congress or anyone else does, there will ALWAYS be people who will not do what they need to do to convert to the new broadcast system. Again, that’s human nature and there is no getting away from it. You just can’t always allow for the lowest common denominator when you are dealing with issues like this. Sad but true, there will be people who will not be able to watch television, or at least not until they get tired of it and they either get up off their butts to take care of the situation or find someone who can help them with it. Because of this human condition, there will never be an ideal time for making the changeover from analog to digital television. Delay after delay after delay will make no difference, since each delay will allow these people to say, “Oh, I guess I don’t have to worry about it now.”

To me, the solution is easy, probably because I have already made sure that I won’t be affected by the switchover. I think that the plan should go ahead as scheduled and let people play catch-up if they have to. Is that going to happen? If I were a betting man, I would bet not. Once again, Congress will do whatever it is that they believe will help them keep the most votes, and that most likely means accommodating those who are not prepared. That will not surprise me at all.