At the in Burlingame, California, a gathering of developers and vendors of next-generation telecommunications services, two executives were cautiously optimistic about what Genachowski's FCC will achieve.

Jonathan Taylor, president and CEO of Voxeo, likes what he's heard from the Obama administration on telecommunications competition. His company provides voice over Internet Protocol and interactive voice response services. But most rivals of the dominant carriers and cable operators didn't survive the lobbyist-driven policies of the last administration, he said.

"I think there's more desire (for service-provider diversity) but not much more ability to do it," Taylor said.

Jamie Siminoff is also more optimistic about the FCC under an Obama appointee. He is founder and CEO of SimulScribe, which operates text-based voicemail provider PhoneTag, and of Grid.com, a startup launched Tuesday to help service providers develop new services.