FCC Shuts Down

The Federal Communications Commission will shut down the majority of its operations Thursday due to the ongoing partial government shutdown.

Most agency activities will cease and the majority of employees will be furloughed, according to the FCC's notice posted on Wednesday.

Fewer than 20 percent of employees will continue working, however. This includes Chairman Ajit Pai as well as three commissioners Michael O'Rielly, Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel.

The FCC has stated that it will continue on with its 5G wireless spectrum auction, which first began in November and briefly stopped for the holidays. But the agency will resume auctioning off licenses in the 28 gigahertz and 24 GHz spectrum bands on Thursday, CNET reports.

Some of the agency's filing and database systems will remain online, including the Network Outage Reporting System, the Disaster Information Reporting System, the Public Safety Support Center, the Licensing Management System, the Consolidated Database System, the Electronic Comment Filing System, the Universal Licensing System, the Electronic Document Management System, the Auctions Public Reporting System, the Auction Application System, the Auction Bidding System, the Daily Digest, and the Commission Online Registration System.

The agency says it will also continue manning its emergency phone line.

So what will be shut down? The agency will temporarily suspend its review of the T-Mobile and Sprint merger, its testing of devices, and its enforcement of consumer protections. General consumer complaint and inquiry lines will also be unavailable. 

So unless you're looking for a 5G license, the FCC will be of no help to you until the shutdown ends.