Telecom Lead America: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski has resigned.
According to an earlier report by Reuters, the FCC chief is leaving the agency after a four-year term that focused mainly on improving Internet access across the country.
According to Time, Genachowski, whose term expires in June after joining the FCC in 2009, has presided over an agency that has grappled with contentious issues like U.S. broadband policy, cable and telecom industry competition, and media consolidation.
In seeking to strike a centrist balance, Genachowski managed to displease both public interest groups that have pushed for a more activist FCC on issues like media ownership and Internet openness, as well as industry giants, particularly AT&T, which had proposed buying T-Mobile before the FCC objected.
The next FCC chairman will confront several challenging issues. The agency is currently weighing new rules about media ownership, and preparing for a complex wireless spectrum auction next year. The FCC faces a closely watched legal challenge over its authority to enforce the “Open Internet” rules that are at the basis of net neutrality. In the lawsuit, telecom giant Verizon claims that the FCC overstepped its legal authority to enforce its own rules. The outcome of the case could have major implications for the FCC’s power to regulate broadband internet service.
This week, Robert McDowell, senior Republican commissioner on the five-member panel, said he will leave in a few weeks.
President Obama is expected to nominate candidates soon for these two positions.
There are already strong candidates for the FCC post. Tom Wheeler, venture capitalist and an Obama ally and fundraiser; Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration; Karen Kornbluh, most recently ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; and Blair Levin, a former FCC staff member and now industry analyst are some of the names.
American telecom industry is waiting for the right FCC chief as several groups were not happy with the Genachowski’s plans.
“When Julius Genachowski took office, there were high hopes that he would use his powerful position to promote the public interest,” Craig Aaron, president and CEO of public interest group Free Press said in a statement. “But instead of acting as the people’s champion, he’s catered to corporate interests. He claimed to be a staunch defender of the open Internet, but his Net Neutrality policies are full of loopholes and offer no guarantee that the FCC will be able to protect consumers from corporate abuse in the future.”
Arvind Krishna
