Summary
Telecommunications Act of 1996: Ten Years Later Symposium
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Extract
The failure of competition under the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
I. INTRODUCTION II. BY THE NUMBERS: FEEBLE COMPETITION III. THE FUTURE IV. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 ("1996 Act") replaced the regulatory framework of a monopoly era with a radical deregulatory approach that promised new consumer benefits through competitive market forces. This new competition has never arrived, in large part because politicians, regulators, and antitrust officials have allowed the telephone and cable companies to kill it. As a result, consumers are faced with few choices and high prices for many telecommunications services in today's marketplace. Supporters of the 1996 Act assumed that deregulation would spur competition--even in markets where competition has never existed or was just unfolding--and prematurely relaxed ownership limitation, while regulators allowed mergers based on theoretical and potential competition that never materialized. (1) This anticompetitive atmosphere has led to consolidation in the form of mergers that most recently e...See the full content of this document
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