The Telecommunications Act of 1996

The goal of the framers of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, passed in February of that year, was to promote uniform local telephone competition. A key proviso of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is that it takes away from each state the capability to approve competition in local telecommunications. It also outlines a procedure for local telephone companies to expand their operations into manufacturing and inter-LATA, in-region and out-of-region, telecommunications. They are not required to form a separate subsidiary to sell out-of-region long distance, electronic publishing and alarm monitoring services.

The Act redefines the responsibilities of the state public utility commissions versus those of the Federal ...

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