Report: Obama to name tech adviser to head FCC

— -- President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate his top technology adviser, Julius Genachowski, 46, to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, a source close to the Obama transition team said today.

The appointment is expected to be announced shortly.

Genachowski, Obama's top technology adviser, is also the architect of the campaign's hugely successful drive to use the Internet to raise money.

Publicly, Obama has singled out broadband — broad bandwith that provides fast Internet connections capable of handling large amounts of data — as a critical issue, viewing it as an economic driver that can help create jobs and improve the quality of life for Americans.

The FCC oversees regulations that affect broadband deployment. As a result, the FCC, under Genachowski, could take on a much higher profile.

"Assuming he's nominated, Julius would be the very first nominee ever for the FCC who had previously been a venture capitalist, an entrepreneur and a tech executive," said Reed Hunt, FCC chairman during the Clinton administration.

During Hunt's tenure, Genachowski was a senior counsel at the FCC.