Telecommunication Act of 1996
In February of 1996, the U.S. Congress enacted the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Act was one of the most substantial changes in the regulation of any industry in recent history. The Act replaced all current laws, FCC regulations, and the consent degree and subsequent court rulings under which AT&T was broken into the "baby Bells." It also overruled all existing state laws and prohibited states from introducing new laws. Practically overnight, the telecommunications industry went from a highly regulated and legally restricted monopoly to open competition. Or almost open competition. It has been more than three years since the Act became law, and while we have seen some changes, they have not been as substantial as many analysts, law- makers, and regulators had anticipated. The Act addressed five major areas of telecommunications: 1) Local telephone service, 2) Long distance telephone service, 3) Cable television service, 4) Radio and television broadcasting, 5) Censorship of the internet. The primary goal of the Act was to promote competition for local telephone services, long distance telephone services, and cable TV services. Inter-exchange carriers (IXC) (such as AT&T, Sprint, and MCI
Bibliography I've lost the bibliography. Urban customers would benefit from increased competition while rural customers would see their prices increase sharply to accurately reflect the high cost of providing services in sparsely populated areas. They have focused exclusively on out-of-region long distance by buying long distance services from IXCs and reselling them, usually to large corporate accounts. For example, after deregulation of the airline industry, prices dropped dramatically for large urban centers, but steadily rose for small rural centers. Deregulation of the cable industry meant big changes. The RBOCs launched several court challenges and managed to delay any real changes. AT&T has barely begun test-marketing the reselling of RBOC services in California -- although it claims it will soon begin reselling RBOC services in all 50 states (something it has been claiming since early 1996). Only MCI has begun building its own local telephone network. The wholesale prices are set by state regulatory agencies and typically are around 20% under the RBOCs current retail prices (but some states have set them as low as 40% under retail). Many analysts believe that local competition will focus on business customers, not the more common household customer. The ACLU and many civil rights activists were firmly against this policy. There has been active competition in the long distance telephone market for many years, but RBOCs have been specifically prohibited from providing long distance services.
Common topics in this essay:
BellSouth Ameritech,
Telecommunications Act,
GTE SNET,
MCI Sprint,
British Telecom,
Thomas Jefferson,
local telephone,
Court June,
telephone service,
MCI BellSouth,
Jones Inter-cable,
telephone services,
local telephone service,
Asia Likewise,
telephone market,
cable tv,
telecommunications act,
distance services,
local telephone services,
distance telephone,
telecommunications act 1996,
tv companies,
universal service,
distance services act,
competition local telephone,
|
Acceptance Essays
