NEWS November 4, 1994 CHAIRMAN HUNDT REITERATES FCC COMMITMENT TO FEMALE AND MINORITY PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNICATIONS BUSINESSES AT FIRST WOMEN OF WIRELESS CONFERENCE Noting that "Today we stand at the brink of enormous change and opportunity in communications," FCC Chairman Reed E. Hundt said, "all women and minorities . . . can be at the forefront of that change. Wireless communications is the world's most exciting industry and there is great opportunity for everyone to participate in this new market." He said "The Commission's goal is to provide all Americans a fair chance to participate in, and share the benefits of, the communications revolution. The objective is to make employment in the industries that the Commission regulates resemble America's population and to provide all groups the opportunity to compete fairly." "In order to promote the employment of women in the communications industry, we must focus on issues that apply generally to women in the workforce. For example, there must be opportunities for women who want to work part-time. Child care must be available and affordable. Telecommuting can help accommodate the needs of women in the work force." Chairman Hundt said the FCC was accommodating its employees by allowing a flexible work schedule, part-time work and job-sharing. He noted that there was a great deal of room for improvement in the involvement of women in the telecommmunications industry but said, "We believe that PCS, in particular, will be a model for creating opportunities for those traditionally not involved in telecommunications. . . . Currently, we estimate that only 1 or 2 percent of communications ownership is women or minority.. We can't close that gap entirely by just the PCS auctions, but we should improve the picture." "To ensure that women will have the opportunity to bring . . . [innovative] ideas to market, we must ask industry participants, 'Who will be your employees? Who will be your managers? Who will be your consultants, equipment suppliers, marketing and public relations companies? Will they be women, as well as men? Will minorities be well represented among your ranks?' These questions are critical for all companies, whether owned or controlled by women, minorities or white males. We intend to keep asking them. I hope you do the same." - FCC - Chairman Reed E. Hundt Speech Before the Women of Wireless Friday, November 4, 1994 ANA Hotel, Washington, D.C. Thank you Sandra for that kind introduction and thank you for asking me to speak at this first Women of Wireless conference. Sandra, your hard work and vision have made Women of Wireless a reality. We look forward to your continuing leadership and to WOW's participation in communications. I would also like to thank Elise Wright for her work in organizing this conference. Today we stand at the brink of enormous change and opportunity in communications. WOW's membership, and all women and minorities, can be at the forefront of that change. Wireless communications is the world's most exciting industry and there is great opportunity for everyone to participate in this new market. Both domestic and international growth in the wireless arena are astounding. In the U.S., the number of cellular phone subscribers increased 48% in the last year and monthly rates declined 12% - a decline all analysts agree is due to anticipation of a more competitive market. Worldwide, cellular telephone subscribers grew 47% in 1993. In Stockholm, the Financial Times recently reported that every other household has some form of wireless communication device. We are not quite there yet in the U.S., but don't be surprised by a similar statistic about Washington, D.C. in the near future. Industry experts predict this industry will not just supplement but eventually compete with the wireline telephone. In a decade, mobile communications services are expected to serve 100 million subscribers and be a $50 billion industry. The new devices are amazing. Seiko has already announced a worldwide paging service that delivers messages to wristwatch receivers. Dick Tracy was just a few years ahead of the times. These new devices will help Americans improve their way of living by introducing a greater degree of flexibility and productivity to our lives. For instance, we hope working parents who have to balance the demands of raising a family and managing careers will be better equipped to do so with wireless communications devices. Already, most new wireless customers cite personal use as their main reason for subscribing. This phenomenal growth and radical change in consumers' lives will result in great opportunity for the Women of Wireless. The Commission's goal is to provide all Americans a fair chance to participate in, and share the benefits of, the communications revolution. The objective is to make employment in the industries that the Commission regulates resemble America's population and to provide all groups the opportunity to compete fairly. The Commission's recent report to Congress on the effect of our Equal Employment Opportunity policies in Broadcast and Cable demonstrated progress in achieving this goal, but we are not where we need to be. For example 33% of broadcast management and 31% of cable management are women. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's statistics, 42% of telephone company management in 1992 were women. We hope to meet or beat these numbers in wireless. We have in place EEO rules that foster the recruitment, hiring and promotion of women, as well as minorities. A few months ago, the Commission imposed a forfeiture on a radio station for failure to recruit and hire women as required by the broadcast EEO rules. We hadn't fined a broadcaster for failure to recruit and hire women since 1988. But we don't want to have to resort on fines as the primary way to get women in the wireless workforce and management. In order to promote the employment of women in the communications industry, we must focus on issues that apply generally to women in the workforce. For example, there must be opportunities for women who want to work part-time. Child care must be available and affordable. Telecommuting can help accommodate the needs of women in the work force. These steps need to be taken not only in industry, but at the Commission. We have allowed employees to adopt a flexible work schedule ("flextime") which allows them to start their work day as early as 7 o'clock and leave by 3:30 or to start at 10 o'clock and leave at 6:30. We also allow employees to work part-time -- between 16 and 32 hours per week. In addition, we allow job sharing -- one employee works mornings, the other afternoons; or one employee works from Monday morning through noon Wednesday and the other works from noon Wednesday through Friday. When I arrived at the FCC nearly one year ago, I discovered that the Commission had not gathered any figures on the number of women that own communications businesses. We are going to change that. But based on our inquiries with the major communications trade associations, we found the following. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association has 44 board members; all are men. The National Cable Television Association has 31 board members; one is a woman. The United States Telephone Association has 45 board members; two are women. Finally, the National Association of Broadcasters has 63 board members; 5 are women. I've got nothing against men, but come on. Of course, the worst news is that it's fairly likely that the percentage of women in ownership among businesses represented by these associations is no higher than the percentages on these boards. Of course I've had and will have in my job the great pleasure of working with many of the women who are leaders in the communications industries. I'm thinking, for example, of women like United/Paramount Network President Lucie Salhany, and former Discovery Channel President Ruth Otte who is now pursuing exciting interactive programming opportunities, USA Network's Founder and President Kay Koplovitz, and Shamrock Television's President Diane Sutter, and of course, Inflight Telephone President and your founder, Sandra Goeken Martis. I know that for these and so many other women in communications, the story of their careers has been a story of rebutting prejudice, overcoming stereotypes, and repeatedly being "first" -- the first women to do the many things that were part of their progress along life's path. In a recent magazine article on Washington's most powerful women, Ruth Otte talked about an early job she had doing market research. She remembered, "the assumption that you take notes in the meeting, you get the coffee; he gets the raise because he has a family and you're single." Ruth Otte left that job to work in an emerging new industry, cable, where these assumptions might not be so prevalent. When Otte arrived at Discovery, the fledgling cable network had 27 employees and 156,000 subscribers. Within three years she had helped build an organization with five times as many employees, and that had 50 million subscribers before its fifth birthday. We believe that PCS, in particular, will be a model for creating opportunities for those traditionally not involved in telecommunications. As you know, the FCC's rules have created an entrepreneurs block in which women, minorities and small businesses will have a fair opportunity to compete for licenses. Bidding credits, installment payments and a host of other rules will help create opportunities for such "designated entities" to obtain licenses, and later operate what we hope will be many successful businesses. Currently, we estimate that only 1 or 2 percent of communications ownership is women or minority. We can't close that gap entirely by just the PCS auctions, but we should improve the picture. We are not giving guarantees of success. We are focusing on opportunities to win at auctions, not guarantees of being awarded a license. In the ongoing regional narrowband auction which has raised a total of 451 million dollars, three women-owned businesses are actively competing to become new service providers. In addition to the opportunity to compete for licenses, the FCC's spectrum auctions are launching a new industry which will provide services to hundreds of thousands of Americans and create many spin-off businesses. Some estimate that the winning bidders in the PCS auctions will invest 30 to 50 billion dollars to build wireless networks, in addition to the investment necessary to acquire spectrum. This investment will add 300,000 new jobs in the wireless industry - in manufacturing, management, service and sales - as well as 700,000 related jobs. This may represent the greatest one-time private sector investment in any single industry in the nation's peacetime history. And it certainly is the greatest single economic opportunity made fairly available to women and minorities. Areas such as general management, sales and marketing, system engineering, equipment manufacturing and human resources will demonstrate explosive growth and strong potential. And in these businesses, women and minorities can be full participants from the start. As your founder Sandra Goeken Martis observed, "Women will come up with innovative ideas that big companies won't even have noticed." To ensure that women will have the opportunity to bring these ideas to market, we must ask industry participants "Who will be your employees? Who will be your managers? Who will be your consultants, equipment suppliers, marketing and public relations companies?" "Will they be women, as well as men? Will minorities be well represented among your ranks?" These questions are critical for all companies, whether owned and controlled by women, minorities or white males. We intend to keep asking them. I hope you do the same. To help us ask these questions and guide the Commission on the critical role of the wireless communications, I have appointed Gina Keeney the Chief of our new Wireless Bureau.. Gina's job is to create a regulatory environment conducive to the expansion of wireless communications businesses, and to ensure that the industry develops in a way that includes women, as well as minorities, in its ownership, management and employment ranks. To facilitate opportunities for ownership and employment by women, minorities and small businesses in the communications industry, we have also created a new Office of Communications Business Opportunities. Anthony Williams, OCBO Director and Cathy Sandoval, Deputy Director of that Office, are charged with reaching out to those communities to improve our regulatory decision-making process, and make people aware of the tremendous opportunities in the field. I hope that you get to know Gina, Anthony and Cathy, and I hope you participate in the Commission's rule-makings. Your voice, your perspective, your experience is critical. The communications revolution started at least two generations ago and will continue for future generations. One of its founders was Alexander Graham Bell, who was born on March 3. As it happens, that's my birthday, too. Does that make me a Baby Bell? Anyway, this coincidence is not why I'm Chairman of the FCC -- I've already explained the coincidence that accounts for that event. But a person much more important to me personally even than Alexander Graham Bell also shares my birthday -- my daughter Sara. When Sara enters kindergarten this year, she should be on the information highway that her birthday buddy Mr. Bell helped start -- but she won't be. I hope we connect her classroom and all classrooms to the networks soon. Indeed, my full dream is that as a senior citizen, gray and stout, I will sneak into the back at your convention of the future and listen to my Sara, a woman employed in the great communications industry, speak to you about whatever is rolling on the information highway of the twenty-first century. Thank you very much.