Telecommunication Act Of 1996

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The Telecommunication Act of 1996 Francisco Ochoa Professor Goldeen English 85 29 April 2015 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was created to provide major changes and competition in cable TV, telecommunications, and the Internet. The act was created by President Clinton. It represented the start of a new era in the United States. The act of 1996 was more like a follow up from The Telecommunication Act of 1934.The act was passed in February 8, 1996. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is an extensive document that affects a large number of telecommunications sectors. The Telecommunication Act of 1996 had a major effect on cable TV companies. The act gives telephone companies the option of providing video programming on a common…show more content…
Since most of the companies grew, most of the smaller ones went out of business. There was an estimated of ten thousand employees who were unemployed later one because of the act. The government realized that the number of owners for the companies went from five thousand to a three thousand-eight hundred in just a few years because of the act. That is a big difference since it came out to be a twenty five percent drop. A few years later the government realized what the act had done. They realized that about 66 percent of the radio owners were only owned by 10 different companies. They also realized that about every single radio market out there was owned by only four huge radio companies. The number of employees that worked with radio stations decreased by a little over forty percent. One of the main things they also realized was that most of the commercial news that was coming out in the radio was from 4 companies. This was a problem because diversity of what was being said was very limited. The number of people who would speak in certain radio station was also reduced due to the act because merged some of the media companies. It made it difficult for new people to get airtime on the radio. The act also extended the license terms of the radios to eight…show more content…
The FFC may be able to action with the act if the state does not respond to them. In a case where parties do not come to an agreement than the state regulatory commissions may arbitrate and resolve dispute issues. The act requires local companies to do 3 things now. It requires companies to interconnect their network facilities with the networks of competing telecommunications carrier. To make their services into their constituent network elements and make those elements available to competing telecommunications carriers with fair terms. Companies have to provide resale of any of their retail services to other telecommunication carriers at a reasonable discount to consumers. The new act allowed local exchange carriers in the market but had some regulatory constraints. A Bell company may apply to the FCC for authorization to provide in region long distance services if it has entered into an agreement and meets the requirements of a "competitive checklist" and other requirements in the Act. The companies had to provide services out of their region and incidental long distance

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