Mr. CTIA

Admittedly, it has been a rough couple of months for Tom Wheeler, president of the CTIA. It kind of got started with his Prime-Time Live interview with Sam Donaldson. There, as he prepared to explain how carriers and cell sites work, Sam cut him off mid-drawing just as he was taking out another color of magic marker. The TV news story attempted to reveal an industry conspiracy on the part of carriers who allegedly block each other's E-911 calls. Fortunately, there was no conspiracy, and no true story. However, about 59 minutes of the original Donaldson-Wheeler interview ended up on the editing room floor.

Just as Wheeler was bouncing back from the drubbing by Journalist Donaldson, Fortune magazine lowered the boom. In an article on industry associations, it listed association presidents and their salaries. The magazine went on to suggest that Wheeler sits in the ranks of association leaders who might be overpaid.

Add to those things the average stresses of representing an emerging and dynamic industry on Capitol Hill. Then slather all of that with the requisite planning and effort required to pull together the industry's largest trade show event.

That might be enough to cause some individuals to close their office doors and refuse to speak to anyone for a week or so. However, when this journalist came to ask a few questions about industry issues, Wheeler's door was open. Not only that, he had his same game face on. After all, he is Mr. CTIA, the lobbying taskmaster, the wireless spin doctor, the trade spokesperson and the show session ringmaster all rolled into one. When the spotlight goes on, Tom Wheeler turns on as well.

BALANCING PESSIMISM The Telecommunications Act celebrated its second anniversary this month. The design of the updated act promised the creation of new competition ostensibly to improve telecommunications overall. It hasn't exactly proved to be the tour de force originally intended. Local competition, local companies entering long distance and the implementation of interconnection rules lead a laundry list of issues in a stall mode.

Congressional representatives, particularly Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), have expressed their disappointment in the slow pace over the last two years. Some wireless carriers, such as Andrew Sukawaty, Sprint PCS CEO, on record have identified the Act as a failure. Wheeler, on the other hand, takes exception to this characterization.

"I think it is premature to declare the Telecom Act a failure overall," Wheeler said. "Insofar as the wireless industry is concerned, we are the poster child of the Telecom Act."

He explained that wireless is one area that actually is delivering competition, not only among wireless carriers but also increasingly between wireless and wireline.

Wheeler suggested that the pace that has registered "disappointment" actually is the period that most laws require due to necessary court interpretations.

"The law is not final when it is passed in Congress. The law is not final when it is interpreted by the FCC," he said. "The law is final after all judicial review has been exhausted."

So perhaps the Telecommunications Act isn't a failure after all. Perhaps it is just being judged prematurely. Maybe in time, it will be viewed as something other than a failure. Wheeler doesn't know about that.

"I am going to withhold my vote on that," he said. "But it is too early to hang crepe."

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO LIGHT Despite the wireless industry's poster-child status, there are issues within this industry that have suffered their own plodding evolutionary existence. Cellular carriers have long fought the battle for fairness in interconnection. The moratoria fight has been more than a year in the trenches. As the industry continues to wage these types of battles, does an association lose hope for resolution?

"I take an Oriental approach to life," Wheeler said. "I'm frustrated that things never come fast enough, but I have been around long enough to know that things don't get resolved quickly in all instances."

Then Wheeler, the trade spokesperson, surfaced. He explained that moratoria are probably less of an issue today than they were 12 months ago because there has been "an effective assault on the concept." Rather than a complete resolution of the issue, however, he suggested that it has taken on a "rolling effect." Because the industry pushed the courts and communities hard on moratoria, the issue has evolved into one of where carriers can build sites, not if they could.

Yet even Wheeler, the spin doctor, couldn't contain his frustration on this particular issue.

"It is a travesty that the federal government tells us to go out there and create effective new competition with each other. (It) tells us to go out there and create effective new competition with wireline carriers and mandates that we provide free 911 and location service for 911 when all of these are predicated on the call going through," Wheeler complained. "But they do nothing to assist in erecting the antennas necessary for all of these things to happen."

So what does Wheeler tell CTIA members when all seems bleak with regard to their difficulties with siting? He said he urges perseverance because actions thus far have been noticed.

"I read in one of the trades that Jay (Kitchen) took a little shot at us saying we (CTIA) were too combative on the siting issue," Wheeler said. "I am not ashamed. I don't think this is an issue that is going to go away by making nice."

DOES MOM KNOW BEST? Nice or not, communities blocking antenna sites are made up of average non-industry citizens who have real concerns. What if Wheeler's mom were a community board activist rallying against tower siting because she believed there were health effects and aesthetic issues? What would he tell her? Immediately, he shifts into trade spokesman mode.

"First, there are no health effects. Period," he said emphatically. "And the federal government has clearly pre-empted that area."

But would Wheeler really take that association president tone with his mother, and, if she were on that board, would she simply take his word for it?

"I would hope so. I am sure there were times in my life when I considered her not to be a rational person," Wheeler chuckled. "Last time I checked, she was rational."

Moving on to aesthetics, he takes on a more patient tone. He suggested that the approach should be one of describing "sweet spots" for the best location of antennas. Certainly, he said the industry shouldn't tell a community where it should place a tower, but emphasize that there are only so many viable locations to choose from in order to deliver "service of any appreciable quality."

Wheeler said he would tell her the industry is building the equivalent of the transcontinental railroad for the 21st century. In days gone by, the railroad didn't stop at the city limits, only to be turned back by the city fathers. The same, he said, applies to wireless.

"The city fathers have a right to keep antenna sites out of historic buildings, but they do not have the right to preclude service," he said. "On that service is based safety and competitive issues that the federal government has decreed are federal issues."

But what if the transcontinental railroad strategy didn't work? Wheeler, the diplomat, said his last resort would sound something like, "Mom, you have never been wrong before in your life, but you are this time."

SOUND BITES On the day of this interview, Wheeler is being chased by National Public Radio (NPR) for an industry spokesman comment. He steps away from the interview for a moment to make sure his staff realizes the importance of his connecting with NPR. The National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) just that morning released its findings into the investigation of safety of wireless communications in vehicles. When he returns, I ask how the NHTSA Report came across with regard to wireless.

He said, "On balance, it is very good."

Maybe that was Wheeler, the diplomat, speaking again. Perhaps in comparison to what it could have been, it was "very good." The report isn't a cut to the industry jugular. Many observations within the report are labeled as inconclusive or lacking in empirical data. However, the report doesn't give wireless its blessing either.

It recommends further studies into behavioral characteristics of wireless subscribers in vehicles. It encourages the development of an intelligent answer phone technology that could "divert, record and interrupt messages appropriately based on sensed driving conditions."

It questions legislation requiring hands-free use because it views wireless as a "distraction" whether it is hands-free or portable.

By the end of the day, NPR obviously has contacted Wheeler. The lead-in to the NPR news report suggests that cellular phone use could be a hazard and that NHTSA agrees. However, at the end, Wheeler's counters with his trade spokesman intonations of wireless' greater good.

MOVING ON Shortly, Wheeler moves to the next issue, the next meeting and the next interview. He has no time to dawdle. The next 12 months no doubt will prove to be pivotal for attacking such industry issues as intersystem roaming, local number portability and calling party pays, to name a few. Wheeler will have to keep hopping if he hopes to keep walking the walk and talking the talk.

Next week, the curtain rises on Wireless '98 in Atlanta, one of Wheeler's pet projects. The show is projected to be the largest industry event with some 28,000 attendees coming from around the world. If it's technology, products or significant players you need to discover or meet, Atlanta is where you and many other industry representatives will be.

As for Wheeler, he will be at the center of these activities. You will see him interviewing dignitaries and company bigwigs during opening show sessions. There, he takes on an almost Donahue-esque quality as he interacts with panelists and audience alike, drawing out the significant industry highlights for all to marvel at.

Perhaps that will be his revenge for the lost moments with Sam Donaldson. Or maybe that is just the way he tackles this job of Mr. CTIA.