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US lawmaker wants digital tuners in TVs by 2006
The Federal Communications Commission in 2002 ordered manufacturers to include digital receivers in TV sets by July 2006.
Television manufacturers should include in new sets tuners that can receive new digital signals by early 2006 to help advance the transition to the higher quality channels, US House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton said on Tuesday.
The Federal Communications Commission in 2002 ordered manufacturers to include digital receivers in 50 per cent of television sets with screens of 25 inches to 35 inches by July 2005 and in all sets that size by July 2006. All sets 13 inches and larger must have the tuners by July 2007.
The Consumer Electronics Association has proposed all sets 25 inches and larger have the digital receivers by March 2006 instead and eliminate the 2005 interim step. The FCC has sought comment on the proposal.
Barton plans to push television broadcasters to air only digital signals by the end of 2006. He said the 2007 deadline for tuners was too late to ensure consumers could still see the digital broadcast signals.
"First of all we've got to get the manufacturing community to make the sets such that the digital tuner is in them," Barton said at a Federal Communications Bar Association luncheon.
"I'd like the accelerated date to be sometime at the end of 2005 or the early part of 2006 so we get that past us," the Texas Republican said. He said he planned to send a letter to the FCC urging the agency to push up the deadline.
A spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association said the organization would need more details of Barton's proposal.
Television broadcasters are moving to digital signals that are sharper and clearer, but they do not have to only air digital until the end of 2006 or whenever 85 per cent of the country can see the new signals, whichever is later. FCC and industry officials worry that could take a decade.
Separately, Barton said he planned to soon begin working on a measure to overhaul the country's telecommunications laws, starting from scratch and he joined the US Chamber of Commerce kicking off a coalition to sway lawmakers.
"I believe the best thing to do is start from scratch" to set rules for new technologies such as high-speed Internet services and Internet-based telephone service, Barton said.
The Chamber plans to spend up to $500,000 a year pushing Congress to take a light regulatory approach to the new services. The coalition included the three biggest local telephone carriers, BellSouth Corp, SBC Communications Inc and Verizon Communications, and the No. 2 cable operator Time Warner Inc.
"We want light regulation, we want regulation that takes care of our security, our law enforcement and those people in rural areas," said Chamber President Tom Donohue. "But then we need vigorous competition between ... the other modes of providing the way we communicate."
