WASHINGTON-Daniel Phythyon, capping a stormy year-and-a-half stewardship of the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, which had him under constant siege from feisty bankruptcy lawyers, angry lawmakers and high-powered lobbyists, said he will step down Dec. 1.
“The timing was my decision,” said Phythyon. “The reasons are personal to me and my family. There’s no single reason. There’s no single issue.”
FCC Chairman William Kennard announced Phythyon’s departure at last week’s open meeting and offered him high praise. “Under Dan’s leadership, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has awarded thousands of spectrum licenses for new and existing services that will spur competition and benefit consumers across the country,” he said.
Phythyon said he informed Kennard a month or so ago of his decision and told the chairman he wanted to make his exit with minimal disruption. Phythyon kept his plans to himself and told his staff of his plans only last Monday. Kennard confirmed this account.
“This is as good a time as any,” Phythyon said, noting the FCC was between Congresses and Kennard was approaching his one-year anniversary as FCC chairman.
It was widely known that Phythyon, appointed WTB chief by former FCC chairman Reed Hundt in April 1997, was not in it for the long run. Phythyon predecessors, Regina Keeney (now International Bureau chief) and Michele Farquhar (now a communications lawyer), lasted about a year each.
While Phythyon will cease being WTB chief next week, he will remain on the FCC’s payroll and will work on special projects for an unspecified period. This will free him up to entertain job offers and avoid conflicts of interest. Phythyon said his future plans are not set.
Phythyon took hits from industry and the GOP-led Congress on licensing and rule-making backlogs, on auction administration, public-safety issues, and private wireless and commercial wireless policies-some of which he inherited from the previous administration.
Yet even critics acknowledged Phythyon worked in a tough environment larded with big money, big players, big issues-with Congress breathing down his neck all the while.
“He’s done a good job in difficult times,” said Farquhar. While she would not elaborate on what those difficult times might be, the wireless bureau has come under fire for a large backlog of unfinished items-WTB reported almost 64,000 unresolved issues last summer-and the C-block debacle. Most of the unresolved issues have been taken care of and the FCC has set a re-auction for the C-block licenses for March 23.
Paging, mobile phone and dispatch-radio operators, for their part, are increasingly growing irate the FCC has not exercised its option to deregulate them.
Private wireless users resent Phythyon’s plans to implement the congressional mandate to auction their spectrum.
Wireless industry associations such as the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, the Personal Communications Industry Association, the Industrial Telecommunications Association and the American Mobile Telecommunications Association all echoed Farquhar’s comments.
ITA President Mark Crosby said he had a great relationship with Phythyon but “like professionals we may not always [have] agreed [on the issues].” Phythyon “was handed the agenda … and it was a difficult agenda,” Crosby said. When someone takes over for Phythyon, the private wireless industry must work with Congress and the FCC to make sure its needs and concerns are understood, he added.
While last Thursday’s announcement was not altogether unexpected, it set off a flurry of speculation about who will take the reins of a what has become a high-profile, burn-out job with many challenges, many masters and few apparent rewards.
There is wide speculation that Phythyon’s replacement will come from outside the agency, but that is not carved in stone. Indeed, all of the names being bandied about are current or former employees of either the FCC or the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Names mentioned as possible candidates for WTB chief include Joe Gattuso, deputy associate administrator of NTIA’s office of policy analysis and development; Karen Brinkmann, a communications lawyer and wireless adviser to Hundt; Peter Tenhula, wireless adviser to FCC Commissioner Michael Powell who worked under Kennard when he was FCC General Counsel, and Kathryn R. Dole, deputy director of the FCC’s Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Sources said Tatia Lynne Williams, special assistant to NTIA head Larry Irving, was approached for the job, but turned it down after NTIA countered the offer. Williams denied being offered the position and turning it down.
Of course, any or all of these names could be scratched before a successor to Phythyon is chosen, especially given the fact the FCC seems to like to surprise the telecom industry when it comes to FCC appointments. Some sources suggested even naming names could be enough to eliminate someone from consideration.
“The person will have to have many talents and the chairman is thinking very hard about the decision,” said Ari Fitzgerald, Kennard’s wireless adviser.
It is possible Kennard could recruit from Capitol Hill, given the beating WTB has taken from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other lawmakers. This also puts Dole in a good position, said some industry insiders.
If Phythyon’s replacement has not been named by Dec. 1, Gerald Vaughan, deputy WTB chief, will fill in temporarily as acting bureau chief, many sources said. However, Fitzgerald said this had not been announced and suggested it could change before Dec. 1.
Neither Vaughan nor Rosalind Allen, another WTB deputy, are believed to be under consideration for the post.
Indeed, one of industry’s big criticisms is that Phythyon relied so heavily on lieutenants who were often difficult to work with and who took positions that not only clashed with commercial and wireless interests but that also sometimes embarrassed Kennard and undermined his programs.
