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Rank: 25
Why He Matters: Is the FCC chief more powerful than the boss of AT&T? For the sake of appearances, we'll say yes -- but the reality is, well, murky. A former telecom lawyer, Martin was appointed to the FCC by President Bush in 2001 and assumed the chairmanship last year. He's since declined to investigate disclosures that America's major phone companies shared millions of customer call records with the NSA. His office will also play a key role in deciding the fate of Net neutrality: Will the FCC allow telecom companies like AT&T to charge companies like Google and Yahoo extra for carrying high-bandwidth content over their networks? Martin says he supports the right of operators to differentiate traffic. In other words, he's shaping up to be the kind of regulator a telecom exec can learn to love.Kevin Martin Chairman, Federal Communications Commission |
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