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Jun. 27, 2009

Late yesterday, the U.S. Senate has confirmed President Obama’s choice of Julius Genachowski as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. The Senate also approved the nomination of Republican Robert McDowell to serve another term for the FCC.

Acting Chairman Copps also congratulated the new Chairman on its nomination. The commission for some time now has been operating with only three members.

“I am looking forward to having the benefit of all the talents that five members can bring to our work. These nominees will get us there,” Copps said.

“I look forward to collaborating with Commissioners Copps and McDowell during this dynamic time of extraordinary opportunity,” Genachowski said in a statement, adding that he looks forward to serving with nominees Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Atwell Baker once they’re confirmed.

Clyburn, a Democrat, has served on the South Carolina Public Service Commission. Copps also is a Democrat, so the majority of the FCC will be comprised of Democrats, per the tradition of reflecting the acting president’s party affiliation.

Baker is a former acting assistant secretary for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Democrat Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, who is leaving the commission to serve as administrator for the Rural Utilities Service said he’s confident Genachowski is the right person to tackle the ongoing broadband and media challenges the FCC now faces.

Genachowski is a former Harvard law school classmate of President Obama and served as an advisor to the president’s transition team.

Wireless carriers such as T-Mobile USA issued statements welcoming the new appointees. T-Mobile's v.p. of Government Affairs Tom Sugrue also congratulated Larry Strickland on his confirmation as leader of NTIA.

On the FCC’s agenda for its July 2nd meeting is also a notice of proposed rulemaking on whether to provide mobile licensees with authority to operate on channels with bandwidths up to 30 megahertz in the upper 6 GHz band, and whether to extend conditional authority to two additional channel pairs in the 23 GHz band.

The FCC meeting also will include an update on the status of the commission’s process for developing a national broadband plan.

Throughout the wireless industry, it looks like Genachowski is welcomed as the FCC's new chairman and most industry observers think he's a good choice.

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Source: The FCC.