When all is said and done and the Federal Communications Commission has fully relocated to the Portals II building in Southwest Washington next year, the real catastrophe for the telecommunications world may not be the distance to the FCC (and the possibility that taxis might not be available). No, the real problem could be the lack of communications-wireless communications.
The problem came to light last month in the following way:
I was at the FCC’s current headquarters at 1919 M Street (a place I visit a lot), in the elevator with my mobile phone and an unknown FCC staffer looked at me and said, “You know you won’t be able to use that when we move to the Portals.”
I laughed, thinking the nameless bureaucrat did not know what he was talking about. To use a phrase made famous by former FCC chairman Reed Hundt on another matter, it was “unthinkable” that I would be unable to use my phone (which I had become very attached to long before I started to exclusively cover this industry) at the new headquarters.
It was unthinkable that every time I went to the FCC-and I tend to go there a lot-I would be out of touch, that I (gasp) would have to find a pay phone.
But then it occurred to me, such an unthinkable occurrence not only would impact me but almost everyone else I knew who visited the FCC regularly.
Thankfully, for the wireless industry, mobile phones are such a pervasive part of everyday life that many FCC employees use them. Indeed, the FCC has a contract with Bell Atlantic Mobile. An employee trying to use his BAM phone at the new site was unable to do so, which prompted the FCC to discover there was a problem. Apparently, the Portals II building shields the signals from the outside.
BAM has agreed to solve the problem by Nov. 23, so FCC employees who use BAM contracted phones will not be impacted.
But what about the other carriers in the Washington area-Sprint Spectrum, Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless, Cellular One and Nextel? What is their status? “We haven’t pushed the other carriers too hard, but they haven’t been overly enthused,” an FCC official told me.
In spot checking the other carriers in question, what I got were incredulous responses. No one knew what I was talking about.
Maybe I don’t. Maybe-and for the sake of wireless industry and the FCC I hope I am-I am wrong. But if I am not, it is unthinkable what will happen when the lobbyists find out.
