By Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) Chairman Michael Powell plans to resign after four years as chief regulator of the telecommunications and media industries, sources familiar with his decision said on Friday.

Reuters Photo

Powell, a 41-year-old Republican, is expected to officially announce his resignation later on Friday, the sources said.

Appointed chairman by President Bush (news - web sites) in 2001, Powell suffered several defeats, including a failed effort to relax regulations restricting television and radio ownership and a revolt by fellow Republican Commissioner Kevin Martin who voted against his plan to ease local telephone network sharing rules.

Among bright spots, he shepherded through a plan to eliminate interference with public safety wireless communications, advanced the transition to higher-quality digital television and promoted high-speed Internet service.

Lately, the FCC (news - web sites) under Powell was perhaps best known for cracking down on indecent antics on television and radio, sparked by pop singer Janet Jackson exposing her bare breast during the Super Bowl football game last year.

The FCC chairman has received praise from most companies for his deregulatory approach. However, consumer groups have criticized him for attempting to allow media conglomerates to grow bigger and reducing competition among wireless providers.

Powell, son of retiring Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), had planned on following his father's military career, entering the U.S. Army. But, a jeep accident in Germany in 1987 almost killed him, requiring 18 units of blood during extensive surgery in which doctors almost left him for dead.

After a long rehabilitation, he went to law school, clerked for a federal judge, became chief of staff at the Justice Department (news - web sites)'s antitrust division, and was appointed in 1997 as an FCC commissioner by then-President Bill Clinton (news - web sites).

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