New FCC Chief Says He’ll Focus on the Telecommunications Revolution : Government: Reed Hundt cites connection between information systems and employers’ ability to create jobs.

The Federal Communications Commission will focus on how revolutionary changes in the communications field can be used to promote economic growth in the nation, the agency’s new chairman says.

FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, in an interview, called the nation’s telecommunications policy the “beating heart of American growth” because modern employment is so reliant on fast and high-quality information systems.

Hundt, 45, a Washington lawyer who became chairman of the five-member commission a week ago, said he sees an important role for the FCC in helping all businesses grow and create jobs.

A prep school friend of Vice President Al Gore and law school acquaintance of President Clinton, Hundt enjoys a close relationship with the White House.

Hundt will guide the way the FCC and its staff of about 2,000 lawyers and communications specialists regulate broadcast and cable television, radio, wireless and wired telephones and any other communications systems that use the airwaves.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press on Friday, he used some of the same words frequently heard from the White House when telecommunications policy is discussed.

He spoke of “reinventing government” at the FCC by making the agency more accessible to the public.

Since being sworn in last Monday, Hundt has pushed for faster installation of computer systems that will make possible better communications within the FCC staff. Electronic mail and telephone voice mail will be used for the first time.

“Here,” he said, as he patted a personal computer on the credenza behind his desk, “is the first computer ever installed in the FCC chairman’s office.”

Hundt said he hopes to soon have FCC information available on the Internet computer network, which is available to anyone with a personal computer and modem. And he said he wants those who file briefs and information to the FCC to soon be able to do it electronically.

Hundt comes to the FCC from the Washington office of the Los Angeles-based law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he gained a reputation as an antitrust specialist.

That expertise is expected to serve him well in a period when mergers among cable TV, telephone companies, Hollywood studios and broadcast companies seem to occur almost daily.

He emphasized that companies can grow to a very large size and not be monopolies, but said “part of the FCC’s job is to guarantee the potential for competition.”

Many of the mergers are aimed at transforming television into an interactive medium that could serve as a telephone or computer as well as entertainment center. Viewers would be able to dial up the shows they want instead of being tied to a predetermined programming schedule.

Hundt didn’t speak specifically about an expanded role for broadcasters but said that even as new video systems are evolving--with the promise of 500 interactive cable channels--broadcast television must be preserved.