Washington, D.C., wants to create a city-wide Wi-Fi network within...

will attract businesses and talent to the city,” his plan said. D.C. should be a “high-tech magnet,” according to the plan, which lists telecom as one of its three subsectors. Telecom is undergoing a “convergence” of companies, said the report, which identified “critical developments” including a transition from wired to wireless, voice to data and the rise of VoIP technology and smartphones. It includes charts describing the District of Columbia’s telecom industry. The Washington metro area has, as of 2010, 26,000 telecom employees out of 903,000 nationally, according to the report. That statistic breaks down to 39 percent working for wired carriers, 14 percent for satellite providers, eight percent for wireless carriers and 40 percent for “other telecommunications,” one chart said, but the report said “these numbers may be skewed because many major firms in both the wired and wireless telecommunication subsectors are classified under the wired telecommunications category.” It also suggests that the city’s employment numbers, and specifically the “other telecommunications” employment category, may be influenced by proximity to policy makers, regulators and the FCC. Wired telecom employment is more stable in D.C. than it is nationally and pays about 56 percent more than the national average, the report said. The “federal footprint” in real estate would also be reduced due to teleworking, the 116-page plan added, referring to federal agencies that “rely on teleworking and hoteling (mobile workers using by-reservation office space) up to four days out of the week.” There’s “no clear evidence” whether telecom will contribute to D.C.’s economic growth, the report said.