Donald Gips has a penchant for throwing himself into his work-and play-with reckless finesse and abandon.
And he’s paying for it today with a severely ruptured disc on the mend from years of rough and tumble sports that could have easily left him paralyzed and a key policymaking post at the Federal Communications Commission that will put Gips in the spotlight in 1997.
Gips heads the International Bureau, taking the position in May from Scott Harris, who returned to private law practice after helping to launch the bureau as part of Chairman Reed Hundt’s reorganization a year-and-a-half ago.
Gips’ challenge is as cut and dry as it is complex: export the telecommunications revolution of free-market competition to the international arena.
Pampering Baby Bell local telephone companies and long distance carriers enough to pass telecom reform legislation is one thing. Convincing hundreds of countries to open their markets on land and air to competition is another.
Initiatives are in the works in the United States and at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization to liberalize global telecom markets and to reform the International Mobile Satellite Organization and the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization. Many issues are interrelated, moving through a complicated maze of regulators, lawmakers and industry-here and abroad. The White House is weighing in as well on the extent to which Comsat Corp., the U.S. signatory to 79-nation member Inmarsat and 139-nation member Intelsat, can participate in Inmarsat’s mobile satellite service affiliate, ICO Global Communications Ltd.
“I want ICO in this market,” said Gips. “I want the competition ICO would generate, but it’s got to be done in a way that is increasing competition in the MSS market and not distorting it.”
As for Inmarsat and Intelsat restructuring, he observed, “It’s of concern to us. These are the largest satellite providers in the world. If this isn’t done in a procompetitive way, it isn’t clear whether we would be destroying competition in our own market by opening up to them.”
Then there are domestic squabbles to worry about, like the spectrum controversy between Teledesic Corp., the global satellite network envisioned by cellular and computer golden boy wonders Craig McCaw and Bill Gates, and Associated Communications L.L.P., headed by the ex-AT&T Corp. heir apparent Alex Mandl.
“They all know each other well,” said Gips, with his familiar grin. “They’re working it out. Hopefully, they will work it out. It’s in both their interests,” Gips stated, sending a not-so-subtle signal to the warring factions.
Also on Gips’ plate is figuring out who will represent the United States in the Star Wars satellite competition for low-earth-orbit mobile data and pocket telephone markets.
On that score, Gips’ predecessor laid the foundation for licensing big LEO and little LEO satellite systems. Motorola Inc., TRW Inc. and Loral Corp. are authorized to build LEO systems of small, next-generation satellites that circle the planet and offer pocket phone service.
Gips must rule on whether two other applicants, Mobile Communications Holdings Inc. and Constellation Communications Inc., are financially qualified to offer service.
A bigger challenge is to find more spectrum for little LEOs. Progress is at hand, he hints. “What we’re hoping to be able to do is free up enough spectrum by sharing with government users to provide at least one more-potentially two more-licenses for little LEO services.
“I will move heaven and earth to get this thing (LEO rulemaking proposal) out as quickly as possible once we get sign off” from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, he said. The FCC is expected to hear back from NTIA, which manages government spectrum, any day. NTIA got the little LEO proceeding delayed so it could investigate spectrum sharing options.
Eight applicants are vying to join the three existing little LEO operations: Volunteers in Technical Assistance, a non-profit group that provides technical assistance to developing countries, Orbital Communications Inc. and GE Starsys Inc. However, a number of the applicants are licensees or have interest in little LEO licenses.
You could call Gips a rising star at the FCC, an accurate but perhaps not the best description of the 36-year-old Highland Park, Ill., native, whose bruising work ethic and inspired intellect seem out of place in the button-down, policy-wonk world of Washington.
That he plays tennis and squash like football and ice hockey is telling: multiple collar bone breaks and concussions. He can’t even escape car accidents, this Ivy League graduate and avid Chicago sports fan. Today Gips sports an uncomfortable looking neck brace that doctors added to his wardrobe after repairing the damaged disc in his neck in August.
Gips is more like a fiery meteor hurling through space programmed by nature to make Big Bang changes wherever it lands-whether it be in Sri Lanka or New York City doing developmental and community work or in the FCC Office of Plans and Policy helping to sell wireless licenses for billions of dollars.
Regarding global telecom free trade, the WTO extended the deadline for negotiations last April to Feb. 15. The United States recently criticized Asia for not coming forward with serious proposals to open Asian markets. “I think the harder challenge,” Gips said, “is trying to put yourself in the shoes of the regulators and try to understand what are the issues they’re facing and crafting what you think is the right policy in a way that fits their needs and their view of the world.”
The less glamorous side to the job-day-to-day license processing-is perhaps the most important to satellite companies. The bureau has streamlined licensing significantly, according to Gips. He says the 130 employees under him are the most dedicated civil servants in the world. They seem to have a good role model.
