Change Sweeping to the FCC

Julius Genachowski, technology adviser to President-elect Barack Obama, is poised to become chairman of the Federal Communications Commission at a time when communications policy lies at the intersection of sweeping changes in the high-tech business landscape. With Genachowski's private-sector experience and ear to Silicon Valley, the appointment could signal greater focus on new Internet technologies for the agency, analysts said. Under the past few chairmen, the FCC has focused on policies of telephone and cable carriers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, analysts said. Reform of a $7 billion federal fund to bring phone service to rural and underserved areas, for example, has been wrangled over for years even as consumers increasingly cut their traditional wireline phone service for cellphones. But high-tech Internet and software giants and start-ups have expressed more interest in communications policy, highlighting the expanded scope of an agency that was first formed to hand out broadcast licenses but now oversees wireless industry competition, the convergence of Internet technology with phone and televisions, and new uses for radio wave spectrum to bring high-speed Internet to urban centers.