Obama's FCC nominee: consumers are top priority

* Chairman-designate speaks at Senate panel hearing

* Will focus on national broadband service plan

By John Poirier

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission will focus on national broadband service and consumer issues under the Obama administration, the FCC chairman-designate told lawmakers on Tuesday.

"As the media landscape changes dramatically, the need has never been greater for an FCC that sees the world from the perspective of consumers and families," Julius Genachowski, a technology industry executive and law school friend of President Barack Obama, told a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.

The committee is expected to approve his nomination later this week, sending it to the full Senate for a vote.

Genachowski told the committee he would focus on implementing a national broadband service plan, promoting more consumer choices in telecoms, and making the agency's work more transparent to outsiders.

In implementing broadband the FCC will help oversee billions of dollars in incentives to states and private companies to expand high-speed Internet to rural and underserved areas. The money was included in the $787 billion economic stimulus package approved in February by Congress.

Obama has said expansion of broadband is important for economic development as a countermeasure to the recession.