What is the role of the FCC?

Answer 1

The Federal Communications Commission is the regulatory division of the US Government tasked with the responsibility of regulating communication. They regulate transmission and reception of electronic communication. They set aside spectrum for agencies and services (ie, police, fire, tow trucks, mobile telephony, broadcast).

Answer 2

When you bring three cases of soda pop to a picnic attended by fifty hot thirsty little kids,

you do not set the soda down on the ground and let them all dive in and grab. At the very

least, you have them line up and take sodas one at a time. Even better than that ... since

you know that there is a limited supply, that each individual craves as many as he can get

and cares nothing for the desires of any of the others at that moment, and that two kids

can't both drink the same soda ... you set up a system of adult supervision if you possibly

can, and you allocate the sodas in an orderly way, so that each individual has an equal chance

at a soda no matter how tiny or heavy he is and how hard he wants to fight for it, and the

supply ... even though the amount is limited ... is eventually allocated uniformly among the

whole group.

The cases of soda pop are the RF spectrum. The thirsty kids are the AM, FM, and TV broadcasters,

the police, fire, sheriff, EMT, ambulance, taxi, state and local government, science, hobby, bluetooth,

wifi, cellular, wimax, 4G, EVO, LTE, garage-door opener, RFID, microwave oven, weather radar,

and ham groups, who all need to use the RF spectrum. If each one tries to grab the piece he wants,

nobody will get acceptable service out of his piece. The result will be that each one will increase

his transmitted power, and his service will improve for about a half-hour, until everybody else also

increases their transmitted power. Eventually, the whole RF spectrum will sound like the 27 MHz

Citizen's Band, you'll get a sunburn from all the RF every time you walk down the street, and nobody

will be able to use radio for anything at all.

The FCC, and the government agencies like it in almost every country, are the adult supervision.