F.C.C. Chairman Announces Resignation

F.C.C. Chairman Announces Resignation

Julius Genachowski, the Federal Communications Commission chairman since June 2009, who set out ambitious plans to expand broadband Internet service throughout the country and to free up additional airwaves for sale to mobile phone companies, said Friday that he would leave the commission “in the coming weeks.”

No successor has been named. Mr. Genachowski’s departure, on the heels of the resignation earlier this week of Robert M. McDowell, a Republican commissioner since 2006, will leave the agency with only three of five board spots filled, although Democrats will retain a 2-to-1 majority.

Both resignations had been widely expected since the re-election of President Obama, although the timing had been in doubt because of the chairman’s desire not to leave the commission with a 2-to-2 split between Republicans and Democrats.

Mr. Genachowski leaves a number of his highest priorities unfinished, if well under way. The F.C.C. is in the process of drawing up an ambitious plan to make additional high-value airwaves, or spectrum, available for sale to mobile phone companies for use in wireless broadband Internet service.

The plan hinges on the F.C.C.'s ability to persuade television broadcasters to give up some of their airwaves in exchange for some portion of the sale proceeds.

Most broadcasters have strongly resisted that plan, and an associated proposal to move stations that don’t give up their airways to other frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. That process, known as repacking, would vacate bands of airwaves by allowing television broadcast signals to be packed closer together.

“Over the past four years, we’ve focused the F.C.C. on broadband, wired and wireless, working to drive economic growth and improve the lives of all Americans,” Mr. Genachowski told staff members on Friday, according to an agency statement.

“Today, America’s broadband economy is thriving, with record-setting private investment; unparalleled innovation in networks, devices and apps; and renewed U.S. leadership around the world,” he added.

Mr. Genachowski also oversaw the conversion of an $ 8 billion federal program to provide telephone service to rural and low-income Americans, known as the Universal Service Fund, into one that used the same money to expand broadband Internet service. The fund has now been renamed the Connect America Fund.

As chairman, Mr. Genachowski attracted criticism from both industry and consumer groups, although they also supported some of his actions. Public Knowledge, a consumer group, said in a statement that the chairmanship was best characterized as “one of missed opportunities.”

“The chairman deserves credit for defending both the commission’s data roaming rules and unlicensed spectrum, for permitting DISH Network to provide terrestrial wireless service, and for releasing the staff report that helped to end AT&T’s attempted takeover of T-Mobile,” the organization’s statement said. “But it remains to be seen whether those positive steps will mitigate the enormous consolidation that has taken place in the broadband marketplace under his watch.”

Michael Powell, a Republican who served as F.C.C. chairman and now leads the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, a cable industry trade group, praised Mr. Genachowski’s tenure. “Chairman Genachowski wisely believed that ubiquitous Internet connectivity would be the defining technology of our day,” Mr. Powell said, “and his leadership has ensured that America’s robust wired and wireless broadband networks are world class.”