4 ms·

Isn’t the FCC supposed to be a consumer protection agency? Seems silly to disregard consumer concerns.

• jkaplowitz 8y ago
  The middle initial stands for Communications, not Consumer. It is theoretically meant to regulate shared communications resources, initially the radio waves but by extension also phones and the internet.
• rayiner 8y ago
  The FCC was not intended to be what we consider a “consumer protection agency” (an agency that one-sidedly advocates for consumer interests, like say the CFPB). The Communications Act of 1934 states that the FCC is created to regulate communications with the purpose of making available “rapid, efficient, nationwide, and worldwide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges, for the purpose of the national defense, and for the purpose of securing a more effective execution of this policy by centralizing authority theretofore granted by law to several agencies and by granting additional authority with respect to interstate and foreign commerce in wire and radio communication.” If you look at the historical context of the FCC, including the “several agencies” that the FCC replaces, the focus was on coordinating resource allocation. Granting spectrum licenses, granting permits to build infrastructure, etc. The AT&T monopoly exemplifies the sort of system the FCC was mandated to help create. It was a world class, gold-plated telephone network, available almost everywhere in the US. It wasn’t consumer friendly in many ways (it was expensive and restrictive), but it was certainly “rapid and efficient.”