236
Stevens, J., dissenting
ple in their daily and social life must be effectively regulated." S. Rep. No. 781, 73d Cong., 2d Sess., 2 (1934).1
The wire communications provisions of the Act address problems distinctly associated with monopoly. Section 201 requires telephone carriers to "furnish . . . communication service upon reasonable request therefor," and mandates that their "charges, practices, classifications, and regulations" be "just and reasonable." 47 U. S. C. § 201. Section 202 forbids carriers to "make any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services . . . or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, class of persons, or locality." 47 U. S. C. § 202(a). The Commission, upon complaint or its own motion, may hold hearings upon, and declare the lawfulness of, proposed rate increases, § 204, and may prescribe just and reasonable charges upon a finding that a carrier's actual or proposed charges are illegal, § 205. Persons damaged by a carrier's violation of the statute have a right to damages, §§ 206-207, and any person may file with the Commission a complaint of violation of the Act, § 208.
Section 203, modeled upon the filed rate provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act, see 49 U. S. C. §§ 10761-10762; S. Rep. No. 781, supra, at 4, requires that common carriers other than connecting carriers "file with the Commission and print and keep open for public inspection schedules showing all charges for itself and its connecting carriers." 47 U. S. C. § 203(a). A telephone carrier must allow a 120-day period of lead time before a tariff goes into effect, and, "unless other-1 See Investigation of the Telephone Industry in the United States, H. R. Doc. No. 340, 76th Cong., 1st Sess., 145-146 (1939) (chronicling Bell System's development of a "Nation-wide, unified system to monopolize the telephone part of the national communication field" through the "prevention and elimination of effective competition"). See also H. R. Rep. No. 1273, 73d Cong., 2d Sess., pt. 1, p. XXXI (1934) ("Telephone business is a monopoly—it is supposed to be regulated").
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