Chutes & Ladders: Martin confirmed as FCC chair

Kevin Martin is set to serve a full 5-year term as chairman after the Senate confirmed his tenure. Martin has been a commissioner since 2001. He succeeded chairman Michael Powell when Powell stepped down in 2005. Martin is one of the three Republican commissioners on the agency's 5-commissioner panel. Here's a quick smattering of recent Martin-related articles from our archives:

• AT&T-Bellsouth merger delay is being caused by a standoff between Democratic commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, who have concerns about the anti-competitive impact of the merger, and chairman Kevin Martin and commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate. Column [1]
• Martin may ask commissioners to require VoIP service providers to begin delivering 911 calls to the appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP) by September. Article [2]
• Shortly after a large gathering of telco executives sang "Happy Birthday" to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, he said that taxing VoIP systems was a good idea. Article [3]
• Happy 10th Anniversary to the Telecommunications Act of 1996! It's a day late, but I bet we're still the first. Yesterday, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and his cohorts got together to discuss the Act, which they said was 62 years in the making. Article [4]

For more on Martin:
- see this blurb [5] in WirelessWeek