Communications Act of 1934

Communications Act of 1934

Other short titles	Federal Communications Commission Act; Act of June 19, 1934
Long title	An act to provide for the regulation of interstate and foreign communication by wire or radio, and for other purposes.
Enacted by	the 73rd United States Congress
Citations
Public law	Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 73–416
Statutes at Large	48 Stat. 1064
Legislative history
Signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 19, 1934
Major amendments
All-Channel Receiver Act of 1962 Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 Telecommunications Act of 1996

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The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 19, 1934, and codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, 47 U.S.C. § 151 et seq. The act replaced the Federal Radio Commission with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It also transferred regulation of interstate telephone services from the Interstate Commerce Commission to the FCC.

The first section of the act originally read as follows: "For the purpose of regulating interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and radio so as to make available, so far as possible to all the people of the United States a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges, for the purpose of the national defense, for the purpose of promoting safety of life and property through the use of wire and radio communication, and for the purpose of securing a more effective execution of this policy by centralizing authority heretofore granted by law to several agencies and by granting additional authority with respect to interstate and foreign commerce in wire and radio communication, there is hereby created a commission to be known as the Federal Communications Commission, which shall be constituted as hereinafter provided, and which shall execute and enforce the provisions of this Act.";^[1][2] although it has since been amended.^[3]

On January 3, 1996, the 104th Congress of the United States amended or repealed sections of the Communications Act of 1934 with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It was the first major overhaul of American telecommunications policy in nearly 62 years.