47 U.S.C. § 221
Section 221 · Consolidations and mergers of telephone companies
Amended 5 times on record
Applied in 77 court decisions — leading case United States v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. (1956)
Most recently applied in Irregulators v. FCC (March 2020)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Subject to the provisions of sections 225 and 301 of this title, nothing in this chapter shall be construed to apply, or to give the Commission jurisdiction, with respect to charges, classifications, practices, services, facilities, or regulations for or in connection with wire, mobile, or point-to-point radio telephone exchange service, or any combination thereof, even though a portion of such exchange service constitutes interstate or foreign communication, in any case where such matters are subject to regulation by a State commission or by local governmental authority.
For the purpose of administering this chapter as to carriers engaged in wire telephone communication, the Commission may classify the property of any such carrier used for wire telephone communication, and determine what property of said carrier shall be considered as used in interstate or foreign telephone toll service. Such classification shall be made after hearing, upon notice to the carrier, the State commission (or the Governor, if the State has no State commission) of any State in which the property of said carrier is located, and such other persons as the Commission may prescribe.
In making a valuation of the property of any wire telephone carrier the Commission, after making the classification authorized in this section, may in its discretion value only that part of the property of such carrier determined to be used in interstate or foreign telephone toll service.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1996—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 104–104 struck out subsec. (a) relating to notification of State Governor and State commission, public hearing, and certification.
1990—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 101–336 substituted “sections 225 and 301” for “section 301”.
1956—Subsec. (a). Act Aug. 2, 1956, inserted provisions relating to submission of comments by parties and required a public hearing upon request, in lieu of former provisions requiring hearing upon application.
1954—Subsec. (b). Act Apr. 27, 1954, included mobile or point-to-point radio telephone exchange service within exclusions provided for in such subsection, where it is subject to regulation by a State commission or by local governmental authority, and made it clear that the Commission retains its licensing authority over the radio stations that might be involved in such service.