Legislation Commons^™

Ten Years Under The 1996 Telecommunications Act, Reed Hundt

Federal Communications Law Journal

Keynote speech delivered at the Telecommunications Act of 1996: Ten Years Later Symposium, February 6, 2006, George Washington University.

The 1996 Telecommunications Act: Ten Years Later, Pat Aufderheide

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Interconnection Policy And Technological Progress, Gerald W. Brock

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Swallows, Sausages, And The 1996 Act, Daniel B. Phythyon

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Open Video Systems: Too Much Regulation Too Late?, Micha Botein

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Responses By The Federal Communications Commission To Worldcom's Accounting Fraud, Warren G. Lavey

Federal Communications Law Journal

WorldCom's disclosure of billions of dollars of financial fraud on June 25, 2002 challenged the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") in several major ways. The FCC proclaimed its commitment to enforce its rules to protect consumers against service discontinuance as well as the priority of rooting out corporate fraud. The FCC's rules required WorldCom to file accurate financial information and to show that it had financial and character qualifications necessary to hold FCC licenses. Despite numerous related proceedings and other actions in 2001 and early 2002, the FCC had not detected nor deterred WorldCom's fraud. After the disclosure, WorldCom continued its …

Brand X And The Wireline Broadband Report And Order: The Beginning Of The End Of The Distinction Between Title I And Title Ii Services, J. Steven Rich

Federal Communications Law Journal

This Article traces the development of the FCC's distinction between "telecommunications services" subject to common carrier services under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act and "information services" regulated under Title I of the Act from the Computer Inquiry line of cases through the Brand X decision and recent Wireline Broadband Report and Order. The Author pays particular attention to the Brand X decision and the FCC's Wireline Broadband Order and its implications, suggesting that the Order may be subject to reversal when it is challenged in court and proposing how the Commission might react to a reversal. The Author …

Rethinking Regulation Of Advertising Aimed At Children, William A. Ramsey

Federal Communications Law Journal

In 1990, Congress passed the Children's Television Act ("CTA"), which directed the FCC to establish standards for broadcasters regarding the amount of children's programming aired and to enforce limits on the amount of commercial time aired during children's programming. The limits are meant to protect children from various harms caused by advertising aimed at children. This Note examines the constitutionality and the effectiveness of these commercial limits. The Note concludes that while the CTA's commercial limits are probably constitutional under the Court's test for regulations of commercial speech, the limits do not provide children with adequate protection from the harms …

Out Of Thin Air: Using First Amendment Public Forum Analysis To Redeem American Broadcasting Regulation, Anthony E. Varona

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

American television and radio broadcasters are uniquely privileged among Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensees. Exalted as public trustees by the 1934 Communications Act, broadcasters pay virtually nothing for the use of their channels of public radiofrequency spectrum, unlike many other FCC licensees who have paid billions of dollars for similar digital spectrum. Congress envisioned a social contract of sorts between broadcast licensees and the communities they served. In exchange for their free licenses, broadcast stations were charged with providing a platform for a "free marketplace of ideas" that would cultivate a democratically engaged and enlightened citizenry through the broadcasting of …

A Model For Emergency Service Of Voip Certification And Labeling, Tom Lookabaugh, Patrick S. Ryan, Douglas C. Sicker

Federal Communications Law Journal

The diffusion of VoIP technology promises revolutionary changes to a century old model of voice telephony. Though these changes bring extraordinary opportunities, they also bring challenging policy implications for businesses and regulators. In this Article, the Authors examine the technical difficulties of providing the same quality and dependability of emergency services in VoIP based telephony as consumers have come to expect from PSTN-based telephone networks. Given the technical complexity and heterogeneity of VolP, the Authors propose industry self-regulation through an advanced certification framework as a more effective alternative to direct government regulation. After surveying a number of successful self-regulatory regimes, …

Why Stovepipe Regulation No Longer Works: An Essay On The Need For A New Market-Oriented Communications Policy, Randolph J. May

Federal Communications Law Journal

In the ten years since the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the telecommunications industry has undergone profound technological and marketplace changes. May argues that the "techno-functional constructs" of the statute regulate services based on increasingly obsolete definitions. This Article argues that those changes have undermined the "stovepipe" regulatory scheme of the 1996 Act. In an increasingly diverse and competitive marketplace, the "stovepipe" model of regulation should be left in the dustbin of history. Instead, May argues that a new market-oriented regulatory regime focusing on consumer welfare through the application of antitrust principles should form the basis of a new regulatory model.

Communications Policy For 2006 And Beyond, Reed H. Hundt, Gregory L. Rosston

Federal Communications Law Journal

In this Article, the Authors propose sweeping changes to the current telecommunications regulatory regime. With impending reform in telecommunications laws, the Authors argue that an important first step is the creation of a bipartisan, independent commission to examine and recommend implementation of more market-oriented communications policy. Through maximizing the operation of the markets, the authors argue that communications policy will better serve its goals of increasing business productivity and consumer welfare through the better services and lower prices. Important steps to achieve optimal market operation include deregulating retail prices where multifirm competition is available, minimizing the cost of public property …

Virginia Cellular And Highland Cellular: The Fcc Establishes A Framework For Eligible Telecommunications Carrier Designation In Rural Study Areas, Mark C. Bannister

Federal Communications Law Journal

In 1996, Congress passed the first substantial rework of the Communications Act of 1934. This Act was intended to benefit consumers by encouraging competition and establishing a series of explicit mechanisms for assuring universal service. One of the outcomes is the creation of significant controversy over the federal, and in some cases, state universal service subsidy for the class of telecommunications providers typically known as wireless or cellular and defined by federal statute as "commercial mobile radio service" ("CMRS"). Incumbent local exchange carriers ("ILECs") characterize these subsidies as a windfall and as unnecessary to provide wireless phone service. They argue …

Securing The Freedom Of The Communications Revolution, Michael K. Powell

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The 2005 Communications Act Of Unintended Consequences, Daniel Brenner

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Contrasting Policies Of The Fcc And Ferc Regarding The Importance Of Open Transmission Networks In Downstream Competitive Markets, Harvey Reiter

Federal Communications Law Journal

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") and the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") have undergone a remarkable role reversal. After years of resistance to the very notion of competition in the electric and gas industries, FERC has, with considerable vigor and consistency spanning nearly two decades, promoted policies to open access both to gas pipeline and high voltage electric transmission networks to downstream competitors of the network owners. FERC has stated plainly and repeatedly that the underpinning of these policies is that open access is essential to the protection of competition in the sale of the largely deregulated services reliant upon …

Convergence And Competition-At Last, Antoinette Cook Bush, John Beahn, Mick Tuesley

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Four More Years... Of The Status Quo? How Simple Principles Can Lead Us Out Of The Regulatory Wilderness, Adam Thierer

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Broadcast Flag: It's Not Just Tv, Wendy Seltzer

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Time For Change On Media Cross-Ownership Regulation, John F. Sturm

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments In Program Content Regulation, Richard E. Wiley, Lawrence W. Secrest

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Broadcast Flags And The War Against Digital Television Piracy: A Solution Or Dilemma For The Digital Era?, Debra Kaplan

Federal Communications Law Journal

With the advent of digital TV, many homes in the U.S. are now on the cutting edge of what is likely to be a sea change in how this country watches TV. While these homes can now begin to enjoy the numerous benefits of the technology, regulators and industry experts are working to craft responses to problems, both actual and anticipated, that the technology creates. Mindful of the piracy issues that came with the popularity of digital file formats in the music industry, the FCC addressed piracy in the digital TV context by endorsing the use of "broadcast flags" on …

The Road Not Yet Traveled: Why The Fcc Should Issue Digital Must-Carry Rules For Public Television "First", Andrew D. Cotlar

Federal Communications Law Journal

After having recently adopted a variety of complex decisions concerning the digital television transition, the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") may be poised in the next year to address the issue of mandatory cable carriage of digital broadcast television signals. In this regard, it may reasonably consider the possibility of crafting digital carriage rules for public television stations first without ruling positively or negatively on carriage of commercial stations. This action may legitimately be based on the unique legislative and factual differences between the noncommercial and commercial service and would be constitutionally permissible. This Article sets forth the legal basis for …

Competition Versus Regulation: "Mediating Between Right And Right'* In The Wireless And Wireline Telephone Industries, Benjamin Douglas Arden

Federal Communications Law Journal

The wireline telephone industry in the United States is the most complete and sophisticated system in the world, built under 100 years of strict government regulation. While the wireline telephone industry was built under a scheme emphasizing regulatory control, the infancy of the wireless telephone industry has been subject to increasing deregulation and reliance on free market forces to guide the industry's development. It has been suggested that this shift in policy reflects the acknowledged failure of strict government regulation. This Note argues that the shift in regulatory policy reflects a difference in circumstances between the development of the wireless …

A Losing Battle For All Sides: The Sad State Of Spectrum Management, Gregory L. Rosston

Federal Communications Law Journal

Spectrum Wars: The Policy and Technology Debate, Jennifer A. Manner, Boston: Artech House, 2003, 186 pages.

A review of Spectrum Wars: The Policy and Technology Debate by Jennifer A. Manner. In this 2003 publication, the author goes a level further than most spectrum analyses do, by attempting to integrate the complex relationship between domestic spectrum policy and international spectrum concerns. Spectrum Wars can be divided into three major parts: a deep background of the institutional detail of the frequency management process, a description of the tensions between different theories on how to change spectrum management, and finally, a view about …

Electronic Oases Take Root In Mr. Minow's Vast Wasteland, Edward J. Markey

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Promoting The Public Interest In The Digital Era, Henry Geller

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Coming Of Age In Minnesota, Jane E. Kirtley

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Avoiding Slim Reasoning And Shady Results: A Proposal For Indecency And Obscenity Regulation In Radio And Broadcast Television, Jacob T. Rigney

Federal Communications Law Journal

This Note explores the relevant law regarding the issue of indecency and obscenity in broadcast, with particular focus on a 2001 Policy Statement released by the FCC. The Author examines the major problems with the regulatory scheme as it now exists, and offers an alternative. The Author concludes by arguing that leaving the subjective decisions regarding indecency to market forces, leaving parents to determine what should or should not be indecent, and leaving the FCC free to pursue obscenity with greater zeal is the most appropriate course of action for the future.

From Diversity To Duplication: Mega-Mergers And The Failure Of The Marketplace Model Under The Telecommunications Act Of 1996, Anastasia Bednarski

Federal Communications Law Journal

"Mega-owners" in the radio regime became possible with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which radically deregulated national and local radio station ownership limits that had been in existence for almost sixty years. The Act reflected Congress's firm belief that a deregulated marketplace would best serve the public interest. This Note argues that the 1996 Act is an example of excessive adherence to the marketplace model, particularly for regulating the radio industry. The Author argues that although a less extreme marketplace model has guided the FCC's regulation of radio since the early 1980s, the current incarnation of the marketplace model is …