Obama's FCC nominee: consumers are top priority

By John Poirier

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission will focus on national broadband service and consumer issues under the Obama administration, the FCC chairman-designate told lawmakers on Tuesday.

"As the media landscape changes dramatically, the need has never been greater for an FCC that sees the world from the perspective of consumers and families," Julius Genachowski, a technology industry executive and law school friend of President Barack Obama, told a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.

The committee is expected to approve his nomination later this week, sending it to the full Senate for a vote.

Genachowski told the committee he would focus on implementing a national broadband service plan, promoting more consumer choices in telecoms, and making the agency's work more transparent to outsiders.

In implementing broadband the FCC will help oversee billions of dollars in incentives to states and private companies to expand high-speed Internet to rural and underserved areas. The money was included in the $787 billion economic stimulus package approved in February by Congress.

Obama has said expansion of broadband is important for economic development as a countermeasure to the recession.

In the private sector, Genachowski held various positions at Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp and co-founded technology investment firm Rock Creek Ventures. He has served on the boards or as advisers to Ticketmaster, Web.com, The Motley Fool, Beliefnet, Truveo and Rapt.

Genachowski and his pro-consumer remarks were received warmly by the Democratic-led committee, which clashed with former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, saying his policies were too close to industry.

"Too often, FCC commissioners have focused on making sure the policies they advocate serve the needs of the companies they regulate and their bottom line," Chairman John Rockefeller said.

"Time and time again, the FCC has shortchanged consumers and the public interest," Rockefeller said. "Fix it or we will fix it for you."

Genachowski's emphasis on consumer issues comes amid the Obama administration's recent limits on credit card fees and its plans to create a financial product safety commission.

Genachowski is also expected to focus on "net neutrality" to prevent Internet service providers from giving preference to certain content. He said he would preserve the Internet as a "platform for innovation."

As an adviser and fundraiser during the presidential campaign, Genachowski headed a tech policy group and guided Obama's use of social networking on the Internet to reach out to voters. His Washington experience includes being chief counsel to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt in 1994-97, clerking for two U.S. Supreme Court justices and working as an aide to then-Rep. Charles Schumer of New York.

Consumer and industry groups have said Genachowski's business background and his friendship with Obama would give telecoms and new media a higher profile than during the Bush administration. Among the FCC's broad mandates are regulation of telephone and cable companies, oversight of ownership of radio and television outlets, and auctioning public airwaves.