U.S. Telecommunications Today

This paper reviews the current conditions in the U.S. telecommunications industry. It first examines the impact of technological and regulatory change on market structure and business strategy, and then the impact on pricing of digitization and the emergence of internet telephony. Then the paper considers the effects of the 1996 Telecommunications Act on market structure and strategy in conjunction with the history of regulation and antitrust intervention in the telecommunications sector. After discussing the impact of wireless technologies, the paper concludes with some short-term predictions, as well as concern about the derailment of the implementation of the 1996 Act by aggressive legal tactics of entrenched monopolists (the local exchange carriers), and the real danger that the intent of Congress in passing the 1996 Act to promote competition in telecommunications will not be realized.