From Telecommunications to the Internet: Content, Data, Ownership and Privacy

• Major events in telecommunications law in the U.S.
  1. 1934: The FCC formed. The FCC is in charge of regulating, licensing and overseeing federal communications policy, including allocation of all broadcast spectrum airwaves.
     
     
  2. 1984: AT&T broken up. This opened the way for competition for long distance and granted local monopolies to the seven "baby bells" (PacWest, US West, SouthWestern Bell, Nynex, Bell Atlantic, Ameritech and BellSouth. Also GTE and some other local & regional monopolies.)
     
     Articles addressing the history and impact of AT&T's breakup include The AT&T Antitrust Consent Decree: Should Congress Change the Rules?.)
  3. 1996: The Telecommunications Act of 1996. Set up rules by which telephone companies could compete locally and for long distance, as well as developing new services (such as wireless and data businesses). Among other things, this law has enabled the baby bells to merge back together, and to compete with other companies to sell products. In turn, other companies can compete with the baby bells in what was formerly their regulated monopoly.
     
     This law also addressed telecommunications, changing the rules by which TV and radio broadcasters have played. A large impetus for this was the media owners, who argued they needed additional incentives to develop new services such as HDTV and digital broadcasting.
     
     There are also provisions for cable TV. Local Exchange Carriers are limited in how much controlling stake they can have in cable companies. Cable companies are encouraged to offer a variety of services, such as broadband data.

• What relationships exist between providers of these services:
  1. Cable television
  2. Local phone service
  3. Long distance phone service
  4. Long-haul data communication (Internet & intranet)
  5. Wireless
• What different issues are there for metropolitan, suburban and rural areas?
• Take a look at NC's utilities Commission. How are they structured, and how good a job do they seem to be doing? Take a look at their recent Selected Telecommunications Orders
• Do phone companies and others try to cheat each other and the public? You bet.... read through BellSouth v. LEC for a titillating example.