Ch 2 The Fcc

Ch. 2 – The FCC

1.1 Introduction
1.1.1 Introduce Communications Act of 1934
1.1.2 How the FCC works

1.2 A Regulatory Overview
1.2.1 Communications Act of 1934
1.2.1.1 Brings together regulation of all sectors of the telecommunications industry under one administrative body
1.2.2 Communications Regulation Before 1934
1.2.2.1 Prior to 1934, telegraph, telephone and radio were governed by separate laws and separate governmental bodies
1.2.2.2 Radio Act of 1912 – allocate different blocks of spectrum to different users
1.2.2.3 Radio Act of 1927 – said spectrum was government property and created the Federal Radio Commission to issue these licenses, had to serve the public interest
1.2.2.4 Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 – first statute to regulate telephone service, gave regulatory jurisdiction to the Interstate Commerce Commission
1.2.3 Regulatory Integration Under the 1934 Act
1.2.3.1 Replaced the FRC with the FCC
1.2.3.2 Put an end to fragmented jurisdiction
1.2.4 The Structure of the 1934 Act
1.2.4.1 7 titles
1.2.5 Other Relevant Statutes and Agencies
1.2.5.1 Copyright Act of 1976 – created compulsory licenses that allow cable operators to retransmit copyrighted content at regulated rates
1.2.5.2 Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999 – amended the Copyright Act to include a similar compulsory license in providers of direct broadcast satellite service
1.2.5.3 National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) – with FCC determine what parts of the spectrum are reserved for the government, determines presidential policy on telecommunication issues
1.2.5.4 International Telecommunications Union (ITU)

1.3 The FCC
1.3.1 5 commissioners, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate
1.3.2 Formal actions – adjudication and rulemaking
1.3.2.1 Adjudication – specific actions aimed at the past behavior of a small number of parties
1.3.2.2 Rulemaking – begins with a NPRM or NOI

1.4 An Overview of Spectrum Management
1.4.1 First – determine which services it will allow on which frequencies and how many users will provide these services
1.4.2 How to allocate licenses for the service and what service rules it will impose
1.4.3 Create rules for assignment, transfer, renewal and termination of licenses
1.4.4 Public trustee obligations

1.5 Regulatory Tradeoffs & Allotment
1.5.1 FCC goals with regulation – competition, diversity and localism
1.5.2 These three goals are in tension with each other – in come cases, competition might have to be sacrificed to achieve diversity

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License