
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 23, 2000]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 23, 2000 and December 4, 2001]
[CITE: 47USC11]

 
          TITLE 47--TELEGRAPHS, TELEPHONES, AND RADIOTELEGRAPHS
 
                          CHAPTER 1--TELEGRAPHS
 
Sec. 11. Powers of Federal Communications Commission

    If any railroad or telegraph company referred to in section 9 of 
this title, or company operating such railroad or telegraph line shall 
refuse or fail, in whole or in part, to maintain, and operate a 
telegraph line as provided herein, for the use of the Government or the 
public, for commercial and other purposes, without discrimination, or 
shall refuse or fail to make or continue such arrangements for the 
interchange of business with any connecting telegraph company, then any 
person, company, corporation, or connecting telegraph company may apply 
for relief to the Federal Communications Commission, whose duty it shall 
thereupon be, under such rules and regulations as said commission may 
prescribe, to ascertain the facts, and determine and order what 
arrangement is proper to be made in the particular case, and the 
railroad or telegraph company concerned shall abide by and perform such 
order; and it shall be the duty of the Federal Communications 
Commission, when such determination and order are made, to notify the 
parties concerned, and, if necessary, enforce the same by writ of 
mandamus in the courts of the United States, in the name of the United 
States, at the relation of either of said communication commissioners. 
The commissioners may institute any inquiry, upon their own motion, in 
the same manner and to the same effect as though complaint had been 
made.

(Aug. 7, 1888, ch. 772, Sec. 3, 25 Stat. 383; June 19, 1934, ch. 652, 
Sec. 601, 48 Stat. 1101.)

                          Transfer of Functions

    Duties, powers, and functions under this section relating to 
operation of telegraph lines by railroad and telegraph lines granted 
Government aid in construction of their lines imposed on and vested in 
Federal Communications Commission by act June 19, 1934. See section 601 
of this title.


                    Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

    Application, see rule 81, Title 28, Appendix, Judiciary and Judicial 
Procedure.
    Effect of rules on this section, see note by Advisory Committee 
under rule 81.
    Writ of mandamus abolished, see rule 81(b).

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in sections 12, 15, 601 of this title.
