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The passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 inaugurated a new and highly volatile era in telecommunications. The first major overhaul of U.S. communications law since 1934--when no one had a television set, a cordless phone, or a computer--the Act was spurred into being by broad shifts in technology use. Equally important, this book shows, the new law reflects important changes in our notions of the purpose of communications regulation and how it should be deployed. Focusing on the evolution of the concept of the public interest, Aufderheide examines how and why the legislation was developed, provides a thematic analysis of the Act itself, and charts its intended and unintended effects in business and policy. An abridged version of the Act is included, as are the Supreme Court decision that struck down one of its clauses, the Communications Decency Act, and a variety of pertinent speeches and policy arguments. Readers are also guided to a range of organizations and websites that offer legal updates and policy information. Finalist, McGannon Center Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communication Policy Research
This book engages in advanced analysis of the key constitutional, administrative, and economic issues that arise in the various telecommunications settings. The new edition will continue the tradition of the first by offering a comprehensive yet lively and accessible introduction to the various regulatory regimes applicable to broadcast radio, broadcast television, cable television, all forms of telephony, and the Internet. The second edition will contain discussions and journal excerpts in addition to excerpts from important legal materials ? the cases and FCC documents that define regulatory policy today ? designed to help readers understand the technologies, economic principles, and business strategies that undergird the modern telecommunications market. The authors have streamlined much of the older material, resulting in a more compact casebook that will focus the bulk of its materials on current controversies and modern regulatory strategies. Summaries and previews at the start of each set of readings still help students know what to read for and questions at the end of each set still encourage students to think critically about those materials.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 envisioned a competitive free-for-all in the U.S. telecommunications industry with removal of barriers to entry in local telecommunications markets and the lifting of the artificial restrictions that kept the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) out of the interLATA long-distance market. After close to 5 years, only one RBOC has been granted permission (controversially) to enter the interLATA market, and local competition has yet to provide most consumers with meaningful choices. In addition, the wave of mergers across the industry has raised the specter of putting the former Bell System back together again. Policymakers now openly question whether the Act can deliver what it promised. Three principal themes are developed in this book. First, there has been a coordination failure between Congress and the FCC in translating the principles embodied in the Act into practice. The authors provide evidence for this by analyzing stock market reactions to legislative and regulatory actions. This coordination failure was largely predictable, given the ambiguity in the Act, as well as conflicting jurisdictions between the FCC and the states. Second, the Act calls for wholesale prices to be `based on cost.' Regulators adopted a costing standard (TELRIC) that provides a means to subsidize competitive entry in local telephone service markets. The ready adoption of the TELRIC standard by regulators is shown to be tied to the third theme: price cap regulation provides regulators with `insurance' against the adverse effects of competition in local telephone markets. Statistical analysis reveals that regulators in price cap states set uniformly lower unbundled network element prices (lower barriers to entry) in comparison with regulators in rate-of-return and earnings sharing states. The result is a triumph of regulatory processes over market processes - the antithesis of the purpose of the Act.
For companies in and around the telecommunications field, the past few years have been a time of extraordinary change-technologically and legally. The enacting of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the development of international trade agreements have fundamentally changed the environment in which your business operates, creating risks, responsibilities, and opportunities that were not there before. Until now, you'd have had a hard time finding a serious business book that offered any more than a cursory glance at this transformed world. But at last there's a resource you can depend on for in-depth analysis and sound advice. Written in easy-to-understand language, Telecommunications Law in the Internet Age systematically examines the complex interrelationships of new laws, new technologies, and new business practices, and equips you with the practical understanding you need to run your enterprise optimally within today's legal boundaries. * Offers authoritative coverage from a lawyer and telecommunications authority who has been working in the field for over three decades.* Examines telecommunications law in the U.S., at both the federal and state level.* Presents an unparalleled source of information on international trade regulations and their effects on the industry.* Covers the modern telecommunications issues with which most companies are grappling: wireless communication, e-commerce, satellite systems, privacy and encryption, Internet taxation, export controls, intellectual property, spamming, pornography, Internet telephony, extranets, and more.* Provides guidelines for preventing inadvertent violations of telecommunications law.* Offers guidance on fending off legal and illegal attacks by hackers, competitors, and foreign governments.* Helps you do more than understand and obey the law: helps you thrive within it.
In 1996, Congress enacted comprehensive reform of the nation's statutory and regulatory framework for telecommunications by passing the Telecommunications Act, which substantially amended the 1934 Communications Act. The general objective of the 1996 Act was to open up markets to competition by removing unnecessary regulatory barriers to entry. At that time, the industry was characterised by service-specific networks that did not compete with one another: circuit-switched networks provided telephone service and coaxial cable networks provided cable service. The act created distinct regulatory regimes for these service-specific telephone networks and cable networks that included provisions intended to foster competition from new entrants that used network architectures and technologies similar to those of the incumbents. This intramodal competition has proved very limited. But the deployment of digital technologies in these previously distinct networks has led to market convergence and intermodal competition, as telephone, cable, and even wireless networks increasingly are able to offer voice, data, and video services over a single broadband platform. the current market environment, but not on how to modify it. The debate focuses on how to foster investment, innovation, and competition in both the physical broadband network and in the applications that ride over that network while also meeting the many non-economic objectives of U.S. telecommunications policy: universal service, homeland security, public safety, diversity of voices, localism, consumer protection, etc. This book explores these issues and includes the act in its entirety.
This is a research and reference guide to the telecommunications industry in the United States, providing an account of legislative and policy changes up until the publication of the work. Contributions by scholars in telecommunications law and policy survey the post-1996 legislative field.
"The United States Code is the official codification of the general and permanent laws of the United States of America. The Code was first published in 1926, and a new edition of the code has been published every six years since 1934. The 2012 edition of the Code incorporates laws enacted through the One Hundred Twelfth Congress, Second Session, the last of which was signed by the President on January 15, 2013. It does not include laws of the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, enacted between January 2, 2013, the date it convened, and January 15, 2013. By statutory authority this edition may be cited "U.S.C. 2012 ed." As adopted in 1926, the Code established prima facie the general and permanent laws of the United States. The underlying statutes reprinted in the Code remained in effect and controlled over the Code in case of any discrepancy. In 1947, Congress began enacting individual titles of the Code into positive law. When a title is enacted into positive law, the underlying statutes are repealed and the title then becomes legal evidence of the law. Currently, 26 of the 51 titles in the Code have been so enacted. These are identified in the table of titles near the beginning of each volume. The Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives continues to prepare legislation pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 285b to enact the remainder of the Code, on a title-by-title basis, into positive law. The 2012 edition of the Code was prepared and published under the supervision of Ralph V. Seep, Law Revision Counsel. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the contributions by all who helped in this work, particularly the staffs of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and the Government Printing Office"--Preface.
This definitive legal guide to the new world of telecommunications provides you with thorough, authoritative analysis you need to understand and comply with the complex regulatory landscape in the industry. You'll find timely review of key legislation, FCC rules, regulations and orders, and court decisions with extensive citations and cross-references for such essential topics as the economics of interconnection and detailed discussions of pricing methodologies of offering services for resale; interconnection rules for wire line networks, including the specific rules imposed on incumbent LECs; antitrust litigation in the wake of the 1996 Act, with comprehensive analysis of the cases brought against incumbent local telephone companies; significant changes to universal services requirements; regulations and policies involving horizontal and vertical mergers and acquisitions; the FCC's rule-making and other powers; rights and duties arising from the laws of privacy, intellectual property and free speech; and much more. Federal Telecommunications Law, Second Edition provides all the laws and rules -- including those for price regulation, common carriage, universal service, regulations and court decisions -- are analyzed in detail to provide you with a thorough understanding of the environment within which you must work. Trends in competition, industry structures and technology are explored -- offering you a total picture of the telecommunications industry, in areas such as telecommunications equipment; long distance services; wireless services; the Internet and data services; information services; video services; and more.