Batboard

As Julius Genachowski winds down his five-year term as Chairman of the FCC, rumors of his successor are in full swing. Now, Engadget has confirmed with a White House official that President Obama will nominate industry veteran, Tom Wheeler, for the position, in an announcement that will come tomorrow. According to Wheeler's profile on his personal blog, he currently identifies himself as a venture capitalist and sits on the boards of Roundbox, UpdateLogic, Twisted Pair Solutions, EarthLink and TNS. Wheeler's history in the cable and wireless industry spans decades. He served as president of the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) from 1979 to 1984, and later took the helm of the CTIA as its president and CEO from 1992 until 2003. According to Politico, Wheeler shares close ties with the Obama administration, and is said to have raised hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars for the President's two bids at the White House. Pending confirmation, Mignon Clyburn, will serve as interim chairman until a new leader is appointed.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/30/pres ... -tomorrow/

IMHO this will not bode well for the LMR industry.

Your thoughts?

Yes, Jeff, this nomination brings yet another telecommunications thug into the ring to finish off what's left of the 98 pound weakling of LMR. He's been their water boy for a long time, but now he gets to wear a clean shirt and his long pants to the FCC. I must admit that Republican administrations have also dealt from the bottom of the deck with FCC appointments, but the Obama administration is making an art form of elevating many who pimp for the cable and telecom interest groups in record numbers.

Now the acting chair of the FCC, Ms. Clyburn, is a pretty decent sort, but is unfortunately the daughter of Congressman James Clyburn ( D-SC ), third in command of House Democrats just after good old Nancy Pelosi, who never met a tax he didn't like nor a US Dollar he spent wisely nor any extreme left wing measure he could not support. A recent newspaper story covered a shindig at which Mr. Clyburn and some local political hacks persuaded the T-Mobile employees in Charleston, SC, to join a union. Can't you just see their service improving and your monthly fees going down?

The biggest pig at the Cable and telecom trough is Edward Markey ( D-MA ). He began carrying water for that industry many years ago. He was hijacking bandwith and pushing bad law on behalf of his owners way back when handheld cell phones weighed eight pounds. I once feared that he'd be running the FCC, but he's much too valuable a puppet in his comfortable current seat.

LMR will slip beneath the surface in a few years if these jackasses continue to get elected. I don't see any real voting block on this forum, but the ballot box is your only weapon.