FCC API

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Communications Act into law in 1934, establishing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The regulation of interstate and international communication through radio, television, wire, satellite and cable comes under the authority of the Commission which operates independently as a part of Federal Government.

The Commission’s evolution is a response to technological progress and changes within the communications industry throughout its existence. It aims to promote competition, protect consumers and foster innovation as its primary goals. Extending broadband access and promote digital equity are among the Commission’s future plans, as well as making certain that America continues as a leading nation in 5G technology.

Numerous times the Commission has been in news mainly due to its decisions on matters like net neutrality, media ownership and allocation of spectrum. In the year 2017, they opted for the repeal of net neutrality regulations. These regulations demanded that internet service providers should handle all online content fairly.

Widespread debate ensued over the future of the internet following a controversial decision.

Guidelines, regulations, and licenses are used by the Commission to regulate the communications industry. A website is maintained by them which offers information regarding the services and programs they provide, as well as a registered database of television and radio stations.

The Commission relies on various APIs for supporting their programs and services. It uses some APIs including:

• Licenses API gives insight into licenses issued by the FCC. The license holder’s particulars including their coverage area and type of license are provided.
• File complaints about issues like unwanted telemarketing calls, robocalls or spam texts via the Consumer Complaints API.
• The Public Inspection File API makes it simple to obtain comprehensive information regarding public inspection files for both radio and TV stations. It contains detailed data pertaining to political ads shown by these outlets as well as their programming schedules.

The Commission has encountered a few noteworthy incidents of downtime in its history. As an illustration, the website crashed because of excessive traffic flow in 2017 subsequent to the decision of repealing net neutrality guidelines.

In addition to other incidents, they experienced a data breach in 2017 which resulted in over 100,000 individuals’ personal information being exposed after filing complaints with the agency.

The FCC implements measures to protect its computer systems and data from cyber threats, however security incidents can still happen.