Historical Role For FCC General Counsel

The general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission, Jonathan Sallet, is said to be a policy wonk and strategist as well as legal counselor, as he continues to play a major role in decisions that are shaping the future of telecom. A former lobbyist whose experience in telecom goes back 30 years, in recent times the industry has been sharply critical of his positions on such issues as net neutrality. He also helped kill last year’s proposed merger between Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger, and soon will be looking at the proposed Charter-Time Warner Cable merger, presumably through a lens shaped by what he says is one of his basic principles, “to avoid a society of haves and have-nots.” The chairman of the FCC, Tom Wheeler, praises Sallet for “the ability to see all angles of an issue and provide sage counsel.”