Impact of Recent FCC Decisions on Telephone Service

Impact of Recent FCC Decisions on Telephone Service PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Consumer Protection, and Finance
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Impact of Recent FCC Decisions on Telephone Service

Impact of Recent FCC Decisions on Telephone Service PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Consumer Protection, and Finance
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Impact of Federal Communications Commission Decisions on Local Telephone Service

Impact of Federal Communications Commission Decisions on Local Telephone Service PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Subcommittee on Government Information and Individual Rights
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Telephone
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Impact of Recent FCC Decisions on Telephone Service

Impact of Recent FCC Decisions on Telephone Service PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Consumer Protection, and Finance
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Telephone
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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The Impact of the FCC's Telephone Access Charge Decision

The Impact of the FCC's Telephone Access Charge Decision PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Government Information, Justice, and Agriculture Subcommittee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 784

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Impact of Recent FCC Decisions on Telephone Service

Impact of Recent FCC Decisions on Telephone Service PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Consumer Protection, and Finance
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Impact of Changes in the Telecommunications Industry on Small Business

Impact of Changes in the Telecommunications Industry on Small Business PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Small Business. Special Task Force on the Impact of Telephone Costs
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Small business
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Local Telephone Rate Increases

Local Telephone Rate Increases PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Telephone
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Telecommunications

Telecommunications PDF Author: Lorelei St. James
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437945023
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description
The FCC¿s Low-Income Program, administered by the Universal Service Administrative Co. and supported by the Universal Service Fund, provides low-income households with discounts on installation costs for new telephone service and monthly charges for basic telephone service. This report examined: (1) how program participation and support payments have changed over the last 5 years (2005-2009), and factors that may have affected participation; (2) the extent to which goals and measures are used to manage the program; and (3) the extent to which mechanisms are in place to evaluate program risks and monitor controls over compliance with program rules. Includes recommendations. Charts and tables. A print on demand report.

From Bad to Worst

From Bad to Worst PDF Author: Rob Frieden
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Far too many major decisions of the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) rely on flawed assumptions about the current and future telecommunications marketplace. If the FCC incorrectly overstates the current state of competition, it risks exacerbating its mistake going forward if actual competition proves unsustainable, or lackluster. In many key decisions the FCC cited robust competition in current and future markets as the basis for decisions that relax restrictions on incumbents, abandon strategies for promoting competition, or apply statutory definitions of services that trigger limited government oversight. The Commission ignores the secondary and tertiary consequences of decisions that deprive it of the jurisdiction and flexibility necessary to respond to technological and marketplace changes. Rather than promote competition, the FCC has exacerbated the trend toward concentration of ownership generated by technological innovations that promote bundling of previously stand alone services. Ventures diversify and expand to accrue scale economies and to exploit new opportunities to serve adjacent markets. Rather than make sure that this trend does not lead to oligopolistic behavior, the FCC have removed increasingly essential regulatory safeguards designed to curb market power without robbing ventures of opportunities to operate efficiently. Intentionally or not the FCC contributes to market concentration even as it abandons lawful techniques and policies to monitor and remedy marketplace abuses. The FCC's deregulatory decisions operate in one direction - the elimination of regulatory safeguards - without any option or vehicle for reasserting safeguards should assumptions prove wrong, or circumstances change in ways necessitating public interest safeguards. For example, the Commission's decision to classify Internet access technologies as information services appears to eliminate entirely the ability to respond to anticompetitive practices of Internet Service Providers. So when Comcast or other carriers deliberately disrupt subscribers' traffic in the absence of legitimate network management needs, the FCC has no statutory authority to impose safeguards. Worse yet the decision to treat basic bit transmission as an information service severely restricts the Commission's ability to impose safeguards on services that combine Internet access with software, to provide the functional equivalent of a telecommunications service, e.g., Voice over the Internet Protocol (“VoIP”). The FCC decision to apply the information service classification to all Internet access technologies means that the Commission has abandoned any direct statutory authority and must resort to questionable ancillary jurisdiction to impose even light-handed regulatory safeguards. Other instances of unintended consequences from overly optimistic findings and assumptions about marketplace competition include removal of caps on the total spectrum a single wireless carrier can control, premature abandonment of local loop unbundling requirements and conclusions that incumbent carriers have no duty to deal with market entrants even when the incumbent opts to offer retail rates below the so-called market-driven wholesale rate charged competitors. For each of these decisions the FCC compounded its initial mistakes by foreclosing the option of making necessary and lawful future modifications. This paper will examine the consequences of the FCC's wishful thinking about the viability of current competition and the sustainability of competition going forward. The paper concludes that flawed fact finding and market projections have adverse initial consequences, but even worst future impact. In response to vigorous lobbying by incumbents, impatient law makers and jurists and deregulatory bias the FCC has contributed to the development of a telecommunications industry structure that appears less competitive, innovative and responsive than what occurs in many other countries.

Transformative Choices

Transformative Choices PDF Author: Federal Communications Commission
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781502945860
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
This is a historical review of a series of pivotal decisions that helped shape today's communications landscape, including decisions by the FCC about the following: establishing commercial radio (by the Federal Radio Commission) in 1928; spectrum allocations and color standards for over-the air-television in 1945 and 1952; regulating cable television in 1966 and the early 1970s; authorizing customers in 1968 to attach equipment to their telephone lines; promoting direct broadcast satellites as a competitive alternative to cable television in 1982; letting the market decide the appropriate standards for digital cell phones in 1992; and adopting technical standards for high-definition and digital television in 1996 and 1997. Overall, these decisions have been among the most critical the Commission has faced, generally involving the appearance of a new technology, communications device, or service. In many cases, the decisions involve spectrum allocation or usage. These are “transformative” decisions in the sense that they required the Commission to decide whether to “adopt, with minor revisions, the same legal and regulatory framework and mode of organization, or fundamentally transform them?”Some of the decisions are sufficiently far back in the past that policymakers may not be fully aware or have forgotten what was decided. In addition, these particular historical decisions happen also to shed light on topical issues. The Commission's choices about radio in the 1920s and television in the 1950s have their echoes in current debates about media concentration, diversity, and localism. Competing demands for scarce spectrum resonate from the earliest days to the present. The Carterfone decision can be seen as a precursor to open Internet principles. All these are reasons to study this history, even though policymakers no doubt will draw their own conclusions, and may even disagree, about the lessons to be learned from studying the past decisions. From an academic perspective, too, these case studies offer an opportunity to examine a commonly-asserted view that regulatory policies throughout the economy underwent a major change in the 1970s, from protecting incumbents to promoting competition.2 Is that general view reflected in FCC policies? Two case studies are relevant on this point: (1) the Commission's efforts to protect incumbents are shown in the cable industry case study; and (2) the Commission's efforts to promote entry by a new entrant are explored in the DBS study. Finally, the case studies on digital cell phones and high-definition TV examine the Commission's role in setting technical standards, as well as the trade policy impact of these Commission decisions.