Meet Tom Wheeler, the man who could control your digital life

A longtime Washington DC insider, Tom Wheeler has spent the better part of his career lobbying for big business.

Starting at the Grocery Manufacturers Association, Wheeler later became president of the National Cable Television Association, fighting for legislation on behalf of cable companies in the industry’s formative 1980s. After briefly leaving to start a couple companies focused on broadband and cellular — experiences that would clearly inform his role as an Federal Communications Commission chairman — Wheeler was once again pulled into the beltway, becoming the head of The Wireless Association (CTIA) for over a decade. But Wheeler left CTIA in 2004. As a policymaker, can he be even-keeled without putting unbalanced weight in favor of industry giants — the kinds of giants who wanted a T-Mobile-AT&T merger?

"He has money and he's old," one industry source told The Verge, suggesting that Wheeler is effectively a lame duck — he has nothing to prove, no company or industry to make happy enough to secure a lucrative job in his post-FCC life. That might work out to the consumer’s advantage. It’s also worth noting that Wheeler’s stint in the cable industry came before it was huge, incumbent, slow-moving, often hostile toward its subscribers, and at constant risk of endangering competition.