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
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. The Act permitted the RBOCs to provide long distance outside the regions in which they provide local telephone services. However, they are prohibited from providing long distance services inside their region until at one viable competitor exists for local telephone services. Most analysts expected the Big Three IXCs (AT&T, MCI, and Sprint) to quickly charge into the local telephone market. Sprint has made small moves also providing cellular telephone services in five urban areas. 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. It has established fiber optic services (SONET) in 18 large urban centers and is actively trying to lure the largest corporate customers away from the local RBOCs. The Telecommunications Act that sought Internet censorship was struck down by the Supreme Court in June 1996. It was ruled that Internet censorship was unconstitutional. The ACLU and many civil rights activists were firmly against this policy. As Thomas Jefferson put it “ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”. One year after the Act was passed the expected competition for local telephone service had not materialized. The RBOCs launched several court challenges and managed to delay any real changes. Several cable TV companies have test marketed local telephone service, but none have committed to providing full scale services; most have quietly terminated plans to enter the market after unsuccessful test-marketing. Similarly, most telephone compan
Some common words found in the essay are:
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,
Approximate Word count = 1400
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
