Although we’re months away from the digital transition that is set to take effect on February 17, 2009, there’s still some testing to do, the Federal Communications Commission unveiled at the end of last week. In order to give both consumers and broadcasters the chance to better understand this transition, FCC unveiled that the first place to test it will be Wilmington, North Carolina, where commercial broadcasters have agreed to turn off the analog signals on September 8, 2008.

The idea of conducting a test prior to February 2009 was first suggested by Commissioner Michael Corps at the beginning of March. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin highlighted the importance of testing the markets before the official transition: “This experience will help us to spot issues that we need to address elsewhere in the country before next February,” Martin said.

According to a report released by The Nielsen Company in February this year, approximately 13 million households were not prepared for the digital transition, and approximately 6 million households had at least one TV set that would become not functional after February 17, 2009.

However, two months later, the Consumer Electronics Association and the National Association of Broadcasters released data according to which consumer awareness has grown from 41 percent in August 2006 to 74 percent in January 2008: “That more and more viewers are aware of the transition is a step in the right direction,” Martin said at the time. “However, we still have more work to do.”

The Federal Communications Commission chose Wilmington as one of the test markets due to the fact that all the commercial stations there have already completed the construction of the DTV channels and can now operate on full post-transition power. The Commission also has to make sure that retailers are already offering converter boxes to not leave consumers in the dark at the time of the transition.