Despite the campaign by the National Association of Broadcasters to prepare television viewers for the Feb. 17 switch from analog to digital broadcasting, the U.S. Senate Monday unanimously voted to approve delaying the DTV switch until June — an effort that President Obama and his administration have been pushing since before Obama took office.
Now that the measure has been approved by the Senate, it needs to be approved by the House of Representatives. The House is expected to vote next week in favor of the switch moving to June 12.
Those in favor of the delay say four months will give the Federal Communications Commission more time to prepare for the switch by providing replacement coupons for converter boxes, preparing call centers to handle calls from the 1.5 million people who use analog service, and offering more education on the misconceptions about the switch.
“Calling centers at the Department of Commerce and Federal Communications Commission are ill-equipped to deal with the avalanche of calls that are expected on Feb. 17 and the days and weeks after,” Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller, the delay bill’s cosponsor, told Congress.
Following the Law
The FCC expects to handle up to two million agent-assisted calls during the week of the DTV transition, including up to 400,000 calls the day following the Feb. 17 switch. In order to handle the calls, the FCC has tapped IBM to provide the call-center support under a $12 million contract. The FCC has $20 million in appropriated funds for the effort.
States with high populations of analog users fear the transition will leave those who do not have a converter box without the Emergency Alert System, which broadcasts messages to homes in case of an emergency, and Amber Alerts, which alert the public when a child has been abducted. In Minnesota, where…
Original post by Call Center Outsourcing News
