How a former lobbyist became the broadband industry’s worst nightmare

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in his Washington, DC, office. (credit: Jon Brodkin)

When President Obama nominated Tom Wheeler to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in May 2013, there was widespread concern the new chairman would push the interests of telecommunications companies instead of standing up for the American people.

After all, Wheeler had been the top lobbyist for both the cable and cell phone industries, having worked for the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) from 1976 to 1984 and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) from 1992 to 2004. Though he had left those jobs years before, people wondered if a former lobbyist would properly regulate the industries he once represented.

“Obama’s Bad Pick: A Former Lobbyist at the FCC,” said the headline in The New Yorker on the day after Wheeler's nomination. Consumer advocacy groups such as Free Press and the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute publicly doubted whether Wheeler would be tough on his previous employers.

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