When TV stations go all-digital on February 18, 2009, as mandated by the FCC, people who own older, analog televisions will find nothing but snowy screens on every channel. A digital TV converter box will translate digital signals into something old TVs can display, but those boxes cost money. Fortunately for the TV-watching masses, Uncle Sam began issuing accepting applications for $40 vouchers good for one DTV converter as a part of its Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program on Jan. 1.

In theory, those boxes are supposed to be available at most major retailers across the country, and the $40 coupon should account for more than two-thirds of their price.

In reality, converter boxes are not only hard to track down, but there's also a limited three-month time frame to use the $40 coupons – so by the time you find a converter box, your coupon may have expired.

"Go to the electronics store or search online for the converter boxes. You will find that there are many approved models of the box, some are even listed by retailers, but none are in stock or available for sale," one Wired reader recently observed.

Nielsen estimates there are a little over 14 million households in the U.S. that rely on over-the-air television for programming, or about 13 percent of the 113 million total television households in the nation.

So will consumers find themselves with coupons for items that don't exist?

The strange thing is is no one seems know at this point.

According to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration – the agency in charge of the coupon program – the coupon expiration date "is reasonable and allows ample time for consumers to receive and use the coupons."

The NTIA's final rule also maintains that the 90-day expiration date "will encourage consumers to use coupons promptly and will permit NTIA to use funds from expired coupons to issue coupons to other households."

The only problem is that government is taking a decidedly hands-off approach to the retail part of the equation. For one, stores are not compelled to join the program and the NTIA also acknowledges that the product cycle for converters is currently unknown "and perhaps atypical of consumer electronics products." As such, it will be up to the various retail outlets who are participating in the program to figure out how to meet demand and shift units around the country as necessary.

Complicating matters further, the NTIA openly admits that the coupon program may actually not be sufficient to provide a rebate to every American who wants one and is urging those who need the conversion boxes to put in their request sooner rather than later.

According to Best Buy spokesman Brian Lucas, the company is preparing to carry only one $59.99 model of the digital conversion box, which will go on sale Feb. 17.

"We did that because that's the date the government is going to start mailing out the coupons," Lucas said.

As far as stock is concerned, Best Buy says it's confident it will be able to meet demand, but admits it will be a "learn-on-the-fly" situation.

"It really depends on how things roll out," Lucas said. "It's a difficult situation because nobody has done this before. So, yes, there's some uncertainty."

To date, the NTIA says more than 1.78 million applications have been received for a little over 3.3 million coupons. That means that most people are requesting the maximum of two $40 coupons per household.

Image courtesy of the NTIA