Two years ago he served as the head of the Bush transition team for telecommunications issues.
AARP is taking on telecommunications issues in a way it hasn't in many years, he said.
The proposal "starts a very interesting dialogue about a number of telecommunications issues in a very concrete manner," he said.
"This could lead to Wi-Fi on steroids," said Richard Whitt, a Washington lobbyist for Google on telecommunications issues.
As with many aspects of his policy-making, Senator McCain has historically chosen an independent path on telecommunications issues.
She is an analyst on telecommunications issues for the General Accounting Office in Washington, the investigative arm of Congress.
She is credited with helping the company she worked for, GCI, grow rapidly in Alaska at the same time that Mr. Stevens was influential in telecommunications issues in Congress.
"There are a lot of competing interests here," said Walter G. D. Reed, a partner at Edwards Wildman Palmer in Providence, R.I., who has worked on telecommunications issues.
The minister for culture, media and sport, Jeremy Hunt, will take over responsibility for media and telecommunications issues, including the media regulator Ofcom.
Telecommunications issues, including WorldCom and Nextel Communications, and computer makers like Dell Computer, also gained, as did fiber optics companies, including JDS Uniphase.
But Senator McCain will still be able to use the Commerce Committee as a bully pulpit on his other pet telecommunications issues -- like rising cable television prices.
