FCC Chairman to step down

Michael Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the past four years, announced Friday he will resign, effective sometime in March.

Powell, a Republican who championed telecommunications deregulation, sent a letter of resignation to U.S. President George Bush on Friday, saying his resignation comes with a "mixture of pride and regret."

"Having completed a bold and aggressive agenda, it is time for me to pursue other opportunities and let someone else take the reins of the agency," Powell said in a statement. "During my tenure, we worked to get the law right in order to stimulate innovative technology that puts more power in the hands of the American people, giving them greater choices that enrich their lives."

Powell's main regret, he said, was no longer "working shoulder to shoulder with the most talented and dedicated staff and colleagues that I have known."

Bush has the responsibility of nominating a new commissioner and a new FCC chair to replace Powell. Bush's choice for a new commissioner must be approved by the U.S. Senate. Powell, appointed to the FCC by former President Bill Clinton in November 1997, was named chairman by Bush in January 2001.

Powell's resignation prompted a mix of reaction from technology and telecommunications companies, trade groups and think tanks. Organizations such as the United States Telecom Association and the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a free-market-oriented think tank, praised Powell's efforts to remove regulation from the telecom industry.

During his tenure, Powell pushed the commission to scrap many of the rules requiring incumbent telephone carriers -- often called the regional Bells -- to share parts of their networks with competing carriers. As part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the U.S. Congress set up the sharing framework in which the Bells, which inherited much of their networks after the breakup of the old AT&T government-sanctioned monopoly in the 1980s.

Powell will be remembered for his "forward-looking approach and his strong efforts to drag government policy into the next century," said Tom Tauke, executive vice president of public affairs and communications at Verizon Communications Inc., in a statement. Verizon is one of the four regional Bells.

Powell argued that market forces, and not the government, should determine the competitive landscape of the telecom industry, but he also pushed the FCC to get more involved in areas such as policing indecency on television and radio airwaves. While Powell wasn't a complete free-market advocate, his policies did encourage private companies to invest in new Internet and telecom technologies, said Kyle Dixon, a senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation.

"He really has a love for the technology and an understanding that the technology has economic benefits for consumers," said Dixon, a former legal advisor to Powell. "He understood that changes are going to happen through private sector innovation."

Steve Largent, president and chief executive officer of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, praised Powell for his "obvious and contagious passion for new technology." Consumers were Powell's top priority, Largent said in a statement.