The White House will reportedly confirm that former telecommunications lobbyist Tom Wheeler will be nominated to chair the Federal Communications Commission. Current FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn will act as interim chairman while outgoing Chair Julius Genachowski enjoys his luxurious new life as a fellow at the Aspen Institute policy think tank.
A decade ago, before he was a venture capitalist at Washington D.C.’s Core Capital Partners, Wheeler helped telecommunications companies secure more wireless spectrum and protected them against lawmakers who wanted to ban cell phones in public areas for fear of radiation. “Tom Wheeler is the rock star of telecom,” said president of PBS Pat Mitchell. Years later, in 2008, he raised a cool million for President Obama’s campaign.
Genachowski famously killed the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile, and its questionable whether Wheeler would have done the same, given his background. In 2011, he wrote a cryptic blog post about the merger, but his confusing obsession with rhetorical flair and history make it hard to understand what he believes.
So, instead of copying and pasting speculative opinion about Wheeler from the host of political lobbies looking for a quick press hit, we’ll wait for new information to surface and update readers as soon as we know more.