USA digital television cutover sends thousands to their phones

by billso on Saturday, 13 June 2009

The digital television (DTV) cutover in the United States finally happened yesterday (12 June 2009). The FCC reports that over 700,000 calls have been received at 1-888-CALL-FCC and other hotlines. Web sites like http://www.dtv.gov/ have been flooded with users, too. Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, New York City, Philadelphia and Boston generated the most call volume.

DTV Box in action by craig1black on flickr

The DTV cutover happened here in Hawaii on 15 January 2009, and has been happening in stages across the USA since then. Calls about how to use DTV converter boxes accounted for 30% of the calls. Another 20% of the calls concerned re-scanning issues. When the cutover happened, some converter boxes needed to find the DTV channels again.

See this Associated Press article called Digital TV hot line gets 700,000 calls over switch for more details.

New services

The cutover finally allows US businesses to offer new telecommunications services based on DTV. The Wall Street Journal mentions Qualcomm’s FLO TV, a service that lets Verizon and AT&T mobile users in 39 US cities watch live television on high-end mobile phones. Both mobile carriers will get access to the old analog television channels, which will be used to expand mobile bandwidth and improve data speeds.

See Business Opportunities Open Up With US Digital TV Shift and this SFGate article called FLO TV finally comes to the Bay Area after DTV transition for more details.

Image courtesy of craig1black on flickr through a Creative Commons license.