Summary
Telecommunications Act of 1996: Ten Years Later Symposium
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Extract
The law of unintended consequences.
Whether intentional or not, the 1996 Telecommunications Act ("1996 Act") was transitional legislation, focused largely on the constituencies that battled before Congress at the time of its passage, with compromises to address historic realities. Many provisions central to the 1996 Act were carrots extended to the major players to support (or at least not to oppose) the legislation. (1) And Congress failed to seize that unique opportunity to fundamentally restructure our communications systems in light of the Internet. That was probably a good thing, given the law of unintended consequences.
To be sure, the 1996 Act has lofty, enduring principles--competition deregulation and universal service--but the tough choices that would underpin achievement of those principles were intentionally left vague as Congress punted to the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") to ...See the full content of this document
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