Earl Comstock, president and CEO of COMPTEL, resigned his position to pursue other interests, the trade group announced Wednesday.
Jerry James, former president of Grande Communications Networks, will immediately assume the role of interim CEO while the 300-member trade group searches for a permanent replacement for Comstock.
COMPTEL represents small and midsized telecommunications carriers that have deployed their own facilities in regions historically dominated by incumbents with large market shares.
Republican Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell was COMPTEL’s senior vice president and assistant general counsel prior to joining the agency last June.
Before taking the COMPTEL post in June 2005, Comstock was outside council to EarthLink, an Internet-service provider. Comstock argued at the FCC and in court that federal law required cable operators to lease broadband capacity to third-party ISPs at nondiscriminatory rates. Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld FCC rules that shielded cable from so-called open-access rules.
Last year, Comstock supported network-neutrality legislation designed to bar cable and phone high-speed Internet-access providers from charging fees to Google and Yahoo for preferential treatment on their broadband platforms.
Comstock, a lawyer, was a top telecommunications aide to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) in the 1990s.
