In the United States, all U.S. television broadcasts will be exclusively digital as of February 17, 2009, by order of the Federal Communications Commission. This deadline was signed into law in early 2006. Furthermore, as of March 1, 2007, all new television sets that can receive signals over-the-air, including pocket-sized portable televisions, must include digital or HDTV tuners so they can receive digital broadcasts. Currently, most U.S. broadcasters are beaming their signals in both analog and digital formats; a few are digital-only. Citing the bandwidth efficiency of digital TV, after the analog switch-off, the FCC will auction off channels 52–59 (the lower half of the 700 MHz band) for other communications traffic, completing the reallocation of broadcast channels 52–69 that began in the late 1990s. The analog switch-off ruling, which so far has met with little opposition from consumers or manufacturers, would render all non-digital televisions dark and obsolete on the switch-off date unless connected to an external tuner or analog cable television. The FCC has determined that an external tuning device can simply be added to non-digital televisions to lengthen their useful lifespan. However, as of May 2007, external tuning devices are not widely available, are relatively expensive, and require bulky AC power supplies.[citation needed] Starting in 2008, the government will take requests from households for up to two coupons to reduce the price of some converter boxes by $40. Currently, even the earliest televisions continue to work with present broadcast standards. This mandate was designed to help provide a painless transition to the new standard.