Wednesday, July 01, 2009

FCC Changes

Amid a crammed schedule, the FCC is in the midst of staff musical chairs. The Senate finally confirmed Julius Genachowski as the new FCC Chairman. So Copps goes from Acting Chair back to Commissioner. Jonathan Adelstein moves over to run the RUS. McDowell was just re-appointed as a Republican seat. Other Commissioners are for Senate confirmation - "Republican lawyer Meredith Attwell Baker to be a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission. Baker, along with recent nominee Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat, will fill the last vacancies in the five-member commission." [Forbes]

The first meeting of the new FCC is tomorrow.

  1. The DTV transition just finished.
  2. The FCC is still working to design a National Broadband Policy.
  3. There is a 2.5 GHz spectrum auction coming up.
  4. Cell Phone exclusivity policy to be reviewed.
  5. Oh, that Inter-Carrier Compensation thing and
  6. the rising USF contributions (12.9% now).

Full plate.

Other appointments confirmed were, "the Senate has approved Lawrence Strickling as Assistant Secretary for the Communications and Information in the Department of Commerce and administrator of the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA). With the Senate’s swift actions FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein is now available to begin the confirmation process that will make him head of the Rural Utility Service (RUS)." [WisBusiness]

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