BOSTON—Federal Communications Commission Tom Wheeler may be Public Enemy #1 in the cable industry, but he's quite happy with his Comcast service.

"I am a happy Comcast subscriber in Washington, DC," Wheeler said today at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's (NCTA) annual conference in Boston. Wheeler said he also a "happy Atlantic Broadband subscriber in Oxford, Maryland," where he and his wife have another house. Wheeler made the comments on stage in a Q&A with C-SPAN Senior Executive Producer Peter Slen, who asked about Wheeler's TV service.

Wheeler may be a rarity, as Comcast routinely posts some of the worst customer satisfaction scores in the lowest-rated industry measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). But despite his Comcastic experience and the fact that he used to be the cable industry's chief lobbyist, the FCC chairman has repeatedly clashed with his former industry.

NCTA CEO Michael Powell blasted Wheeler's FCC in a speech at the conference Monday, saying the agency has unleashed a "relentless regulatory assault" on the cable industry without provocation and "without any compelling evidence of harm to consumers or competitors."

Powell and Wheeler used to have each other's jobs. Wheeler led the NCTA from 1979 to 1984 while Powell was FCC chairman from 2001 to 2005. Wheeler was also a wireless industry lobbyist from 1992 to 2004, and he noted today that he lobbied Powell when he was in that role.

"If anybody understands the reality of a job like Michael's, I do," Wheeler said. When you're a lobbyist, you make the case that regulators are going too far and "we're being persecuted, and then you talk about what I call imaginary harms, the awful, conceptual things that could happen if they [regulators] do this or do that.... I'm now on the other side, I'm receiving this," he said.

Powell had criticized a Wheeler proposal designed to make it easier for consumers to watch cable TV channels without renting set-top boxes from cable providers. The FCC proposal would force pay-TV providers to create a software-based replacement for CableCard, letting makers of third-party applications and devices display the TV channels customers are subscribed to.

Powell said that "our property [is] being confiscated and passed off to new competitors." When asked about these comments, Wheeler said the industry should focus on "finding solutions, not just slogans."

The FCC's initial proposal is not a "finished product," but "there is going to be a finished product," Wheeler said. That means he expects the FCC will approve the plan—but potentially with modifications. Instead of opposing it outright, cable lobbyists should "focus on the realities and challenges and work together [with the FCC] for the benefit of consumers," Wheeler said.

When Wheeler was a cable lobbyist, he said, the industry was in a much more tenuous position, fighting for its survival against broadcasters who wanted to put cable companies out of business. But now cable companies are the incumbents, Wheeler has said on several occasions.

"Those who did not want things to change used government to maintain the status quo to the detriment of consumers, and so the philosophy that I developed coming out of [the NCTA] is that the job of government is to promote competition and to let consumers enjoy the benefits of that—with the full understanding that those who are the incumbents never like change," Wheeler said today.

Wheeler pointed out that he isn't always trying to impose more regulations on cable companies. Last year, Wheeler's FCC declared that cable TV faces "effective competition" nationwide, a finding that helps cable companies avoid rate regulation on basic cable TV service in cities and towns.

"The thing that’s interesting is that was a 3-2 vote with me voting with the two Republicans, because I believe there is competition in the delivery of video services that no longer warranted the kind of regulation that had historically been imposed on cable companies," Wheeler said. "And we're now defending that position in court because cities took us to court."

Whether Wheeler is regulating or deregulating, he said he uses the same thought process: "It should be all about government promoting competition and stepping out of the way when there is competition."