According to Fierce Network …

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).

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.