Write An Essay On The Telecommunication Act Of 1996

COMPUTER NETWORKS ASSIGNMENT

1. TELECOMMUNICATION ACT 1996

WHAT IT WAS

The Telecommunication Act of 1996 was passed on the 8thof February, 1996 and signed by Mr. Bill Clinton. It gave rise to a huge revolution in the field of telecommunication in the United States. This law basically derives most of its features from the Communications Act of 1934 ("the 1934 Act") and was formed on the basis of a general agreement which concentrated more on advancement in technology based on competition rather than monopoly. The ultimate motive of this Act was to bring about major changes in the telecommunication arena.

This new Act basically portrays the idea that the service providers should not be limited to the regulatory categories and that they should

This goal was made explicit nation in the national law and it required that the Federal govt along with the FCC coordinate with the various states and implement the changes.

• Keeping the “Service for the public in mind”, the Act ordered the set up of a Federal-State-Joint Board to expand recommendations on defining and funding the universal service and also establish a number of principles on how this could be implemented carefully.

• In May 1997 , the FCC acted upon a recommended decision from the Joint board which included support for high cost areas, households with low income and also various educational institutions. Hence the public was benefitted.

• The main aim was to make sure that the educational institutions and libraries become connected to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) through reasonable rates as defined by the FCC, this initiative was called the “E-rate”, which aimed at not only providing basic communication facilities but also the access to internet in the classrooms throughout the

o Intramodal competition exists among a very few number of wireline broadband providers that serve business customers at various business districts. o Competition between these broadband network providers and a number of independent application service providers.

• The most important thing that might affect the above areas is the entry of a third party broadband network to compete with the broadband networks of the local telephone company and the cable operators.

• Also, several cable operators wanted to take complete charge of the home wireless services and they did so by banning the various Wi-Fi equipment.

• Every cable operator or DSL operator has some ban on the broadband used for any commercial or enterprise