Mr. Wheeler will have to confront several issues almost immediately upon Senate confirmation and being sworn in. The commission is preparing for a complicated auction next year of bands of spectrum — the electromagnetic airwaves over which television, radio and cellphone signals travel.

The auction depends on the F.C.C. convincing television broadcasters to either sell their licenses to use spectrum in exchange for some of the auction proceeds or to willingly move to another spot on the dial, so that the F.C.C. can package and sell contiguous bands of airwaves.

Mr. Wheeler and the commission will also have to decide the extent to which various companies will be eligible to bid for the bands of spectrum. Some consumer advocates say they believe that AT&T and Verizon already control too much of the wireless phone market — roughly 70 percent — and should not be allowed to lock up more spectrum.

The companies, some members of Congress and others, however, want the F.C.C. to maximize revenue from the spectrum auction — which would mean allowing AT&T and Verizon to buy as much as they want.

In 2011, Mr. Wheeler wrote admiringly on his personal blog, Mobile Musings, about the lobbying agility of the National Association of Broadcasters, which had worked to scuttle what looked like a sure-to-pass auction plan then before Congress.

“Suddenly, when a spectrum sale seemed a fait accompli as a payment on the debt, it vanished,” Mr. Wheeler wrote. “No one is talking about it, but these things don’t happen by accident.”

Mr. Wheeler served from 1992 to 2004 as the chief executive of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, the cellphone industry trade group, and from 1979 to 1984 was chief executive of the National Cable Television Association. That has led some telecommunications watchdog groups to worry that he might favor those businesses over consumers.