The government has been running a coupon-based program to subsidize digital converter boxes for those switching to Digital TV, a program with a $1.34 billon funding cap. That cap has been reached.

A waiting list has been started, and anyone asking for a $40 coupon to cover the cost of buying a converter box will now be placed on it, says the acting head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Meredith Baker.

Baker stated at a Monday conference that he doesn’t know how long people may need to wait. The list numbers 103,000 people already. According to Baker, demand grew so suddenly due to a late surge in coupon requests. There were 7.2 million coupon requests in December, more than double the level in October.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Telecommunications and the Internet subcommittee that supervises NTIA says that NTIA is partially responsible for the problem due to their own mismanagement, and said that there is no excuse for the present situation.

Markey says that he’s been asking NTIA for months if they needed more funds, but that Baker only sent him a letter requesting them on December 24, when Congress was out of session. He joked, saying that "DTV now stands for 'Don't Tell Viewers' that they're going to have a problem."

Markey says that he’s working on a plan to allow the NTIA to start re-issuing coupons that have been sent to costumers but not redeemed, as opposed to NTIA’s current practice of waiting 90 days for the coupons to expire before reissuing them. The average redemption rate is currently a mere 52%, so the plan could free up millions of dollars.

Currently U.S. consumers can still request coupons, but they may not show up before February 17. Alternatively, one can just buy the box without a coupon. They cost $40-$70.