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Legislative And Regulatory Strategies For Providing Consumer Safeguards In A Convergent Information And Communications Marketplace, Rob M. Frieden

Rob Frieden

Many ventures involved in information, communications and entertainment (“ICE”) industries have begun to expand their array of offered services. Technological convergence, digitization and the ability of the Internet to handle many different service types within a single bitstream make it possible for companies to offer “quadruple play” bundles of wireless and wireline telephony, video, and Internet access services. Financial and efficiency gains from vertical integration, and the search for new revenues to replace declining margins from maturing and newly competitive services, combine to create robust incentives for carriers to diversify. Diversification by ventures typically results in a single company providing …