FCC Call Center: 46 Seconds

A spot check of the FCC's DTV help line (1-888-CALL-FCC) Sunday produced consistent response times of under one minute, with 46 seconds being the best time from the beginning of the call to the time a live operator came on asked how they could help.

FCC commissioner Rorbert McDowell, who made the call center operations a particular focus of his attention after running into long wait times back in January, had said Saturday he expected the wait times to be reduced from the average four-and-a-half-minutes during peak times Friday, the day full-power analog bit the dust except for the 121 nightlight stations.

The FCC said Saturday that the transition is going without major disruptions, though not without a hitch or two.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.