Genachowski Announces Resignation as F.C.C. Chairman

The resignation on Friday of Julius Genachowski after four years as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission again raises a thorny issue for President Obama: whether it will be possible to get the F.C.C. or Congress to help him fulfill a campaign promise to guarantee that the Internet remains free and open to businesses and users.

Mr. Genachowski, who said on Friday that he would leave the commission “in the near future,” pushed it in the direction of embracing rules against discrimination by Internet service providers in what content they carry or how fast they transmit it, an issue known as net neutrality.

But he has faced opposition on that front from the federal courts and some telecommunications companies, while consumer advocates have complained that Mr. Genachowski was not bold enough in his efforts.

A law school friend of Mr. Obama and an investor in technology and telecommunication start-ups before coming to the F.C.C., Mr. Genachowski set ambitious goals during his tenure and accomplished some of them, including expanding broadband Internet service and beginning to free up additional airwaves for sale to mobile phone companies.

He also successfully opposed the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, a move that he said “revitalized competition” and “led to more spectrum and more capital” for the wireless industry. But his commission also approved the purchase of NBC Universal by Comcast, angering many consumer groups.

Mr. Genachowski announced no immediate plans, although people close to him said it was more likely he would move to a Washington research institute rather than to a telecommunications company or an industry trade group.

Thanking Mr. Genachowski for his service, Mr. Obama said he “has brought to the Federal Communications Commission a clear focus on spurring innovation, helping our businesses compete in a global economy and helping our country attract the industries and jobs of tomorrow.”

“Because of his leadership,” Mr. Obama added, “we have expanded high-speed Internet access, fueled growth in the mobile sector, and continued to protect the open Internet as a platform for entrepreneurship and free speech.”

No one has emerged as a favorite for the chairmanship, although people in the industry have been talking about Tom Wheeler, a venture capitalist and former head of the wireless and cable industry trade groups, as a possible successor. Other possibilities include two previous Obama appointees: Karen Kornbluh, a former Senate aide to Mr. Obama who is now ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Lawrence E. Strickling, an assistant Commerce Department secretary who oversees the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

The F.C.C. has never had a female at its head; that has led some people to expect that Mr. Obama will name Mignon Clyburn, the Democratic commissioner with the most seniority, as interim chairwoman. A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on a possible successor.

Mr. Genachowski oversaw the commission during a period of rapid change in technology, characterized by the explosion of smartphones and an increase in the speed of wireless and broadband Internet connections.

He also leaves a number of his highest priorities unfinished, if well under way, at the F.C.C. The agency is in the process of drawing up an ambitious plan to make additional high-value airwaves, or spectrum, available for sale to mobile phone companies for use in wireless broadband Internet service.

The plan hinges on the F.C.C.’s ability to get television broadcasters to voluntarily give up some of their airwaves in exchange for receiving some portion of the sale proceeds, a process known as an incentive auction.

Most broadcasters have strongly resisted that plan and an associated proposal to move stations that do not give up their airways to other frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. That process, known as repacking, would also vacate bands of airwaves by allowing television broadcast signals to be packed closer together.

The F.C.C. is currently reviewing public and industry comments on its plans for the incentive auction, which it hopes to conduct in 2014. Finalization of those plans will almost certainly await a new chairman, however.

The Internet has thrived over the last four years; technology and telecommunications is one sector of the economy that the recession that began in 2007 left unscathed.