By all rights, Michael Powell ought to be thoroughly fed up. As head of the Federal Communications Commission (fcc), a regulator whose reach spans telecoms, media, the internet and everything in between, Mr Powell has endured one mortifying policy defeat after another. From a battle over America's media-ownership rules to a scrap about telecoms regulation, the courts, Congress, the media and even fellow Republican commissioners have taken turns sticking the knife into the fcc's soft-bellied chairman. Yet fresh from the ritzy Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Mr Powell seems as full of zest for public office as ever. Broadband internet use is spreading at "triple-digit rates", he gushes. New sorts of digital content and communications services proliferate. Super-cheap, off-the-shelf internet phone services—called voice over internet protocol (voip)—are "very for real". In short? America's digital revolution marches on.
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