A U.S. government shutdown threatening to begin at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on Weds., Oct. 1, will impact the telecom industry in a way that is not immediately obvious but still measurable due to the furlough of nearly 90% of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) staff.
The FCC already has a shutdown plan in place. Unveiled in March, the plan calls for the Commission to furlough 88% of its employees, with just 171 of the agency’s staff of 1,476 remaining to carry out critical functions.
This includes five staff to keep the Universal Service Fund running, four staff to continue work in preparation for the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference and four workers to manage disaster response operations and interference detection and mitigation (Great news during peak hurricane season).
New Street Research’s Blair Levin said in a note to investors that while long-term impacts aren’t likely, the short-term effects of a shutdown could include slowdowns in device certifications, spectrum licensing and policy development. Deal approvals, such as for Charter Communications’ $34.5 billion merger with Cox Communications, will also be suspended.
“All pending transactions will face delays in approvals,” Levin wrote. “All future deals filed in the next few months will also likely see some delays, as the staff focuses on the deals on something resembling a first come, first serve basis.”
The FCC’s plan
The FCC’s published plan also notes the agency will not address consumer complaints, conduct activities related to wireless or wireline licensing, or engage in the “creation of new opportunities for competitive services for the American public” during the shutdown.
At SCTE Tech Expo 25 in Washington, D.C., yesterday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told the keynote audience that the commission is in "close coordination" with other agencies. “We're currently crunching the numbers right now to see how much funding [the FCC has] and when exactly do we have to shut down,” he said. "Hopefully, we avoid it, but we do have sort of an off-the-shelf playbook at this time."
One ray of sunshine? Spectrum auction activities aren’t expected to be impacted, though there’s no near-term auction to delay anyway.
NTIA’s plan
Another bright spot: Kentucky broadband director Meghan Sandfoss mentioned at SCTE that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will stay open in case of a shutdown, which means BEAD hopefuls can breathe a sigh of relief...for now.
The NTIA is part of the Department of Commerce. According to the latter’s shutdown plan, the following programs will continue unhindered since their funding is not tied to the annual budget: the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment(BEAD) program, the Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program, the Digital Equity Act Tribal program, the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Grant program, the Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP), and the Connecting Minority Communities (CMC) program.
FirstNet Authority activities will also remain untouched as they are similarly funded through means other than the annual budget.
Masha Abarinova contributed to the reporting on this story.