WASHINGTON -“We started on our one-yard line and we drove down the field, but now we don’t want to settle for a field goal,” said Thomas Sugrue, chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, describing continuing efforts to reduce a 64,000-item backlog that caught the attention of a powerful lawmaker in 1998 and will forever be associated with him.
“It is inconceivable to me that the commission would leave this matter unresolved for this long while innocent consumers, who have been defrauded of nearly $30 million, have been forced to wait anxiously for [a Federal Communications Commission] order that would allow them to recoup at least some of their investments,” said Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, on June 24, 1998.
Even though McCain was referring to one long-standing item, the Goodman/Chan saga was indicative of the backlog, he said in the letter.
At the time, then-WTB chief Daniel Phythyon said the backlog consisted of 50,000 applications for multiple address system licenses and would be soon resolved. But Phythyon left the wireless bureau in November 1998 and the backlog persisted.
“When you are staring at a desk full of paper, you are bound to be less efficient and less effective,” said Jay Kitchen, president of the Personal Communications Industry Association.
Enter Sugrue.
Sugrue began his tenure at the FCC in January 1999. By March he had written to McCain and assured him that within one year the backlog, minus complicated or intra-agency matters, would be resolved. Then he and his team-some credit WTB Deputy Chief Gerald P. Vaughan-set to work.
Steadily, WTB-related items have been flowing out of the FCC and Sugrue has received high marks for making the trains run on time.
“He is the right man in the right job at the right time,” said Sharpe Smith, director of industry and public affairs for the Industrial Telecommunications Association.
Even the diluted pressure from Capitol Hill-as McCain focused more on his presidential bid than on the day-to-day operations of an independent regulatory agency bureau-hasn’t lessened the tide of decisions.
Sugrue and his team have tackled issues beyond the backlog items and seem to be putting in place procedures to prevent future backlogs.
“We will be reporting on our backlog results in March. It will be a good story. We hope it will be a very good story. It will be a goal for next year [to not have the backlog reappear]. It would be a shallow victory if the backlog reappears,” Sugrue said.
Even the cellular industry, which didn’t have many backlog-related issues, has been pleased.
“He has brought new vigor and focus that was very much needed. He has done a terrific job,” said Thomas E. Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Another highlight of Sugrue’s maiden year was Wireless Day held last June when the FCC had an open meeting to discuss all wireless-related items. One of these items-a notice of proposed rule making on calling party pays-is expected to be finished about the time Sugrue reports to McCain on the backlog.
Wheeler also is pleased because Sugrue, who worked in the Common Carrier Bureau earlier in his career, has made CCB aware that some of its decisions impact both the wireline and wireless industries.
“My complaint before Tom Sugrue was that wireless issues were being handled in footnotes in [CCB] items. That is not happening now,” Wheeler said.
Sugrue isn’t always the easiest man to reach. Parties wishing to see him must submit a written request, which is used to determine if any other staffers should attend the meeting.
He says he takes home a folder each night with one-page outlines of meetings for the next day. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t on top of everything. Indeed, ITA President Mark Crosby said he always feels his point-of-view is getting through, even if he is not speaking directly with him.
“Tom is a difficult person to get to, but once you get to him you get a fair hearing … I know he is getting my viewpoint,” Crosby said.
Reaching out to the industry is also an area where Sugrue and his team receive high marks. As McCain first pounced on the backlog, PCIA gave the FCC a list of 71 deregulatory issues the trade association wanted discussed. Many of them were backlog-related, but Kitchen says Sugrue’s team has invited PCIA over to discuss the remaining issues.
All-in-all, Sugrue is well-liked and respected, which was not always the case with his predecessors, who were often privately criticized.
As he moves into his second year, the industry wants the wireless bureau to tackle a wide range of activities with a focus on spectrum management.
“Spectrum is a very delicate issue-too much and the financial markets flew; too little thwarts technology. Maintaining rules for one purpose, such as auctions, just bollix up the whole process. As spectrum czar, he has got a lot on his plate. He has a lot of differing issues,” said Wheeler.
