The FCC Has Untapped Powers. The Next Administration Needs to Use Them

The next administration should revitalize the Federal Communications Commission and use its dormant regulations to break up monopolies in the telecommunications industry. The FCC once used its mandate to regulate abusive and exclusionary behavior by fostering a fair and competitive marketplace that serves the public interest. Between 1934 to 1975, the FCC implemented some of the most progressive anti-monopoly policies in our nation’s history. Although monopolies blight the current communications landscape, the wave of litigation against them is an encouraging sign. The antitrust report released by the House Antitrust Subcommittee also signals a new anti-monopoly commitment by lawmakers…The FCC has the ability to restructure consolidated telecommunications markets, without Congressional intervention. The agency has routinely been granted by courts a powerful affirmation to reinterpret their controlling statute, as was shown in the numerous cases concerning net neutrality. A new administration can nominate commissioners to enact new structural regulations to rein in and break up concentrated corporate. Fundamental change is possible.

[Daniel A. Hanley is a Policy Analyst at the Open Markets Institute]