FCC's Genachowski reflects on tenure

A Q&A with outgoing-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski. He is going unplugged.

The attorney's stewardship of the agency ends May 17, and after more than four years dealing with issues such as broadband, wireless and media consolidation Genachowski, 50, is going off the grid for a while. He and his family are high-tailing it to a western dude ranch. When Genachowski announced plans to step down, says Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, "you had all the left-wing public interest advocates complaining about him and then he had libertarian free market groups (saying), 'Oh, he was too interventionist.' In that sense, I think he got it right, because he was able to win his way through that." Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro dubbed Genachowski "the Spectrum Chairman" for recognizing the need for additional bandwidth to appease the growing mobile connectivity appetite. A challenge for the successor at the FCC will be to execute the auction of spectrum hoped to be regained from the return of some digital TV over-the-air broadcast airwaves.

President Obama's appointed successor, Tom Wheeler, awaits Senate confirmation. Meanwhile, current Commissioner Mignon Clyburn will serve as acting chair.

Genachowski's advice for Wheeler: "Learn everything, and do the right thing."