AEI Paper Argues FCC Has Outlived Its Purpose
| RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, January 15, 2026 | 4:03pm CT |
|
 Mark Jamison |
A new working paper from the American Enterprise Institute contends that the Federal Communications Commission has outlived the economic and technological conditions that justified its creation and should be disbanded.
Authored by economist Mark Jamison, the paper argues that the FCC was designed in 1934 to regulate government-protected telephone monopolies and manage scarce broadcast spectrum -- conditions that no longer exist. Jamison writes that today's communications marketplace is defined by dynamic, intermodal competition among broadband, wireless, satellite, and streaming platforms, undermining the rationale for common-carrier regulation and broadcast licensing.
The paper maintains that as the FCC's original mission has eroded, the agency has increasingly become politicized, aligning its regulatory actions with shifting partisan agendas rather than acting as an independent, expert commission. Jamison reviews the historical foundations of commission-style regulation and details how rapid technological change has made it difficult-if not impossible-to define stable markets suitable for traditional utility oversight.
Rather than eliminating federal oversight entirely, the study proposes redistributing the FCC's remaining essential functions. Spectrum auctions, equipment authorization, and emergency communications oversight could be reassigned to other federal agencies, while consumer protection responsibilities could move to existing consumer-focused regulators. According to the paper, this approach would preserve necessary government roles while ending what it describes as outdated and increasingly politicized regulatory structures.
Jamison concludes that disbanding the FCC would represent a coherent deregulatory strategy better aligned with modern communications markets, while reducing regulatory uncertainty and political influence in an industry driven by rapid innovation and competition.
Read the entire AEI paper here.
