From the early history of the telephone network, both government and commercial actors have taken steps to ensure that access to basic voice telephone services is affordable and accessible to all segments of society. Re-creation of old patterns of subsidy may no longer be possible nor necessarily desirable, but serious thought must be given to sources of funds that will guaranty that the economically disadvantaged will still have access to basic communications services. Extending this guaranty means ensuring that new basic digital services are affordable and ubiquitously available. Equity and the democratic imperative also demand that these services meet the needs of people with disabilities, the elderly, and other groups with special needs. In a society which relies more and more on electronic communications media as its primary conduit for expression, full support for First Amendment values requires extension of the common carrier principle to all of these new media.
Common carriers are companies which provide conduit services for the general public.
The common carrier's duties have evolved over hundreds of years in the common law and later in statutory provisions. The public must have access to digital data transport services, such as ISDN and ADSL, which are regulated by the principles of common carriage. Re-shaping common carriage duties for new media environments is of critical importance as mass media and telecommunications services converge and recombine in new forms. Telephone companies, the traditional providers of common carriage communications services, are moving closer and closer to providing video and other content-based services. By the same token, cable television companies, which have functioned as program providers, are showing great interest in offering telecommunications services.