What is FCC ?
The FCC which is expanded as Federal Communications Commissionis and it is an United States government agency, and it is independent. As per the Communications Act of 1934,The FCC was established on June 19,1934. The main function of this FCC commission is that it is in charge of regulating interstate and foreign radio, television, wire, and cable communications.The jurisdiction of the FCC covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessions.The services which the FCC are dealing with includes
1) Providing a rapid, efficient nationwide and worldwide telephone and telegraph service
2) Providing for orderly development and operation of broadcasting services
3) Employing communications facilities for strengthening national defense, and
4) Promoting the safety of life and property through the use of wire and radio communications.
What's their role?
The vital role of the FCC includes,
1)It regulates amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) broadcasting and also the other kinds of radio services, in the field of radio.
2)FCC also takes the responsibility of issuing construction permits and licenses for all nongovernmental radio stations. So for this they have to assign frequencies, operating power, and call signs.Before assigning this FCC will inspect the transmitting equipment, and also regulates the use of such equipment.
3)In the similar way,FCC also regukates the Television broadcasting and the commission also regulates the use of cable channels and also the quality of service delivered by cable television.
4)FCC is also responsible for issuing the regulations and also to supervise the service,in common-carrier operations, which basically include telephone, telegraph, radio, and satellite communications.
5)For any administration of the telecommunications provisions of treaties and international agreements, and the licenses radio and cable circuits from the United States to foreign points, they need to get approval from the FCC as it is responsible for all these activities.
6)FCC aslo takes care in suprivising ,the Emergency Broadcast System, whose job is to alert and instruct the public in the event of anyenemy attack and apart from this this the system is regularly used for broadcasting weather warnings and may also be used in local emergencies.
Organization of FCC
The administration of the FCC is governed by the five commissioners,who are appointed by the president, with approval of the Senate, for a term of five years and the present chairman is Julius Genachowski and the four commissioners includes
- Michael J. Copps
- Robert M. McDowell
- Meredith Attwell Baker
- Mignon Clyburn
All of them are elected bu the President for the period of 5 years.Out of the four commissionar, only three are allowed to be in the same political party.The FCC is organized into seven Bureaus and eleven Staff Offices.The seven Bureaus includes
- The Consumer & Governmental Affairs (CGB)
- The Enforcement Bureau (EB)
- The International Bureau (IB)
- The Media Bureau (MB)
- The Wireless Telecommunications Services (WCS)
- The Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB)
- The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau
The eleven Staff Offices includes
- The Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ)
- The Office of Communications Business Opportunities (OCBO)
- The Office of Engineering and Technology (OET)
- The Office of General Counsel
- The Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
- The Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA)
- The Office of the Managing Director (OMD)
- The Office of Media Relations (OMR)
- The Office of the Secretary (OSEC)
- The Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis (OSP)
- The Office of Workplace Diversity (OWD)