Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is responsible for the regulation of

international and interstate communications by television, radio, satellite, wire in all the United States territories. The aforesaid commission is the independent commission of the United States government agency overseen by Congress.

Furthermore, the Commission is the federal agency engaged in the enforcement and implementation of the United States Communications law and regulations. This agency has an obligation to create a balance between the interests of businesses and consumers.

The decisions of the FCC are watched by the followers of the stock markets since they affect the companies along different business lines. Generally, FCC makes allocation of cellular and wireless access, carries regulations pertaining to Intellectual Property Rights, Company's mergers and acquisitions and regulates the standards of distribution and content for all the media companies which are operating in the U.S.

Functions of FCC

1. Regulations

2. Approvals

Regulations

As we have already seen, the FCC is responsible for the enforcement of Communications law and FCC regulations. It is imperative to note that there is a commission's enforcement bureau that carries out investigations, levies fines and initiates judgments against the violators. From a regulatory point of view, FCC is empowered to set requisite standards for the communications requirement impose decency standards in the domain of television and radio, and ensure fair competition.

Approvals

It is imperative to note that, when the communication companies want to merge, they need to seek approval from the FCC. The aforesaid procedure of approval is designed to give protection to the consumers and prevent the formation of monopolies. For example, when T-Mobile and Sprint merged in June 2020, they had to take permission from the FCC for their merger.

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