Essential Guide to Telecommunications, The, Third Edition

Factors Leading to Passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is the result of many factors. Demand for passage of the Act had been building up in Congress for many years, and Congress had attempted in the early 1990s to pass reform bills. The Republican congressional leadership who took office in 1995 wanted to deregulate cable TV and broadcasting. Through intense lobbying by RBOCs and long distance companies, a compromise was struck. The Act promised to open interexchange competition to Bells after they proved they had opened their networks to competition. The original framers of telecommunications reform hoped that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 would open competitive choices for local services to ...