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Neither Fish Nor Fowl: New Strategies For Selective Regulation Of Information Services, Robert M. Frieden

Rob Frieden

Neither Fish Nor Fowl: New Strategies for Selective Regulation of Information Services Rob Frieden Professor, Penn State University 102 Carnegie Building University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 (814) 863-7996; rmf5@psu.edu web site: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/r/m/rmf5/ The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has created a dichotomy between telecommunications and information services with an eye toward limiting traditional common carrier regulation to the former category. This regulatory dichotomy provides the basis for exempting most Internet-mediated services from traditional telephony regulation that requires carriers to provide nondiscriminatory network interconnection even with competitors. To support its deregulatory mission the FCC has found ways to subordinate the telecommunications components in …