Telecommunications Act of 1996 Revision

The Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed into law on February 8, 1996 (P.L. 104-104), represented the first major rewrite of our nation’s telecommunications policy. The 1996 Act redefined and recast the 1934 Communications Act to address the emergence of competition in what were previously considered to be monopolistic markets. Despite its relatively recent enactment, however, a consensus has been growing that the 1996 Act is inadequate to address the convergence and technological changes now facing the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors. Whether a further rewrite is required, what form such a rewrite might take, and the timing of a rewrite, remains unclear; however, both the House and Senate are expected to continue to take an active role in examining and debating the issues related to a possible revision of existing telecommunications law. Included among the policy issues likely to be examined are: the universal availability of and access to broadband, the regulatory treatment of incumbent cable and telecommunications providers and the impact of recent mergers, the funding of and eligibility criteria for the universal service fund (USF), the impact and regulatory treatment of newly emerging technologies such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and broadband over power lines (BPL), municipal deployment of broadband, and the relationship between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and state regulatory bodies.