WASHINGTON-Wireless policies initiated by William Kennard, chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission, during his first year finally will be put in place by the end of the century, predicts the
acting chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
“1999 will be an extremely exciting and
happy year. [Kennard’s wireless issues] that we began [in 1998] have begun to grow and we hope to harvest them this
year,” said Gerald P. Vaughan.
The biggest event for the wireless bureau is apt to occur in about two weeks
when Thomas J. Sugrue takes over as WTB chief. Indeed Vaughan admitted there are some items that have been on
hold since former WTB Chief Daniel Phythyon left in early December. “We have a full plate, but there are some
items that we have mutually agreed to [hold] until Tom gets here,” he said.
The FCC could take action in the
next two weeks on items such as the long-anticipated notice of proposed rule making to implement the Balanced
Budget Act of 1997. The private wireless community has long feared this NPRM could force it to participate in
auctions to obtain spectrum licenses. This item could be released, Vaughan said, because although Sugrue would not be
here to pass off on the NPRM, “he will be here for the answers.”
Sugrue, along with Kennard, will set
the wireless agenda for 1999 but Vaughan said he expects public-safety related items to be a top priority.
Public-
safety items expected to be pursued include technical rules for using the recently allocated 24 megahertz of spectrum
and the allocation of the remaining spectrum found in the former TV channels 60-69.
Enhanced 911 issues also fall
under public safety and are expected to be front and center in the upcoming year. Indeed, Vaughan said that making
E911 “faster and quicker” will be the “pinnacle of [Sugrue’s] tenure” as WTB chief.
Also of
issue to both law enforcement, which includes public-safety officials, and the telecommunications industry is the
technical standard for implementing the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The FCC
already has received comments on a further NPRM and is expected to receive reply comments just prior to Sugrue’s
arrival. CALEA implementation is being handled jointly by WTB and the FCC’s Office of Engineering and
Technology.
Vaughan expects Sugrue will be interested in ensuring that those with disabilities have access to
wireless services. This falls under the heading of Section 255 implementation, and WTB has been taking a
commission-wide lead on the issue.
The deployment of the second-generation Universal Licensing System will be
completed by the end of the year, Vaughan said. The upgrade will include improvements suggested by users of the new
system, which was implemented throughout 1998. Wireless services not exclusively using ULS for licensing
processing today are expected to get on board by spring, FCC officials said.
Getting the message out about the
millennium bug-where computer chips may confuse the year 2000 with the year 1900 and fail-will continue to be a hot
topic this year. Vaughan said there has been a concerted effort to get the word out to the telecommunications industry
about the impact of the millennium bug. In fact, he said that “everyone who files something with the [FCC]
receives a Y2K flier.”
Last, but certainly not least, the WTB is slated to move to the new FCC headquarters at
the Portals, in late February and early March. It will not be necessary for Sugrue to have his personnel team in place by
then, Vaughan said, because the set-up allows FCC staff to change office locations without needing to move phones
and computers.
