FCC Told Some Vendors About DTV Orders After Unveiling
The FCC told at least three of the dozen recipients of $8.4 million in DTV education contracts about the awards (CD Jan 8 p2) after or just before the deals were publicized Tuesday evening, they said. The AARP was the only contractee among those we surveyed that learned of the awards beforehand, being told by the FCC Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Officials at Communication Service for the Deaf learned of the contract on Wednesday, and representatives of WXXI Public Broadcasting heard about an hour after the FCC issued a press release, officials said.
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The three groups, with contracts worth a total of as much as $4 million, and the Iowa Public Broadcasting Board, getting up to $222,516, hadn’t finalized details of the contracts by the time the FCC publicized them, or still are working on details of their education plans, officials said. Some officials said government announcement of awards before details are finalized is rare, while another said it occasionally occurs. “We were literally told that afternoon and they had the press release out just later,” said Dean Sagar, director of government relations for livable communities for the AARP. The group will use the money to answer calls from the elderly with questions about setting up digital converter boxes, installing new antennas and the like, and hopes to handle about 500,000 calls total, Sagar said.
When FCC officials contacted the AARP, the agency was ready to send the press release, allowing little time for recipients to start operations, said Sagar. “That was very unusual,” added Sagar, citing his experience on Capitol Hill. An FCC spokeswoman declined to comment on the contracting process.
WXXI General Manager Susan Rogers heard about the contracts at around 8 p.m. Tuesday, and, like Sagar, had assumed that her organization wouldn’t get a contract because of the time that had lapsed between when requests for quotations were due to the FCC in October and this week. “The way the whole thing went it’s pretty clear this is an unusual activity,” said Rogers. “Having responded to other RFQs with other agencies, it was a different process.” Both the AARP and WXXI had thought the FCC would decide on contracts in late 2008. WXXI will use the money to take calls from residents of the Rochester, N.Y., area and run shows and events on DTV.
Communication Service for the Deaf, like other vendors, is gearing up to deliver on the contract, said a spokesman for the organization. He said he thought the contract had been finalized. CSD will field queries on DTV from some of the 28 million Americans who have trouble hearing, he said. “There’s, I'm sure, a lot of vendors [who] are just getting together and trying to figure out what just does this mean and how can we figure out what’s in store for us,” he added. “We're just spending probably the first week or two trying to get all our ducks in a row, trying to figure out all of our logistics.”