Telecommunications_Act_Of_1996

Telecommunications Act Of 1996 Telecommunications Act of 1996 Background of Telecommunications Act of 1996 On February 1, 1996, after more than a year of serious negotiations and political wrangling, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Former President, Clinton, signed the Act on February 8, 1996. The Act is basically a rewrite of the Telecommunications Act of 1934. This Act had a big effect on the Telecommunications industries, from local to long distance telephone services, to cable television, broadcasting and equipment manufacturing. It was a watershed event in the development of the United States communications industry. For decades, communication policy indicated that ownership and services had restrictions that maintained protected monopolies of both the state and federal levels that were set largely by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), state Public Utility Commissions (PUCs), and the federal courts enforcement of the 1984 antitrust consent decree that dismantled the Bell System. With the Act, Congress has reasserted primacy in setting U.S. communications policy, telecommunications, act, television, services, long, federal, distance, deregulation, companies, communications, 1996, telephone, state, set, service, policy, markets, manufacturing, local, industry, february, equipment, congress, competition, cable, broadcasting, att, ‘s, year, wrangling, watershed, utility, unstable, universal, united, time