Essential Guide to Telecommunications, The, Third Edition

The Telecommunications Act of 1996

The goal of the framers of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, passed in February of that year, was to promote uniform local telephone competition. A key proviso of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is that it takes away from each state the capability to approve competition in local telecommunications. It also outlines a procedure for local telephone companies to expand their operations into manufacturing and inter-LATA, in-region and out-of-region, telecommunications. They are not required to form a separate subsidiary to sell out-of-region long distance, electronic publishing and alarm monitoring services.

The Act redefines the responsibilities of the state public utility commissions versus those of the Federal ...