Responding to FCC regulations imposed in the 1970s, most cable operators also make available to subscribers and programmers public, educational, community, and access channels. These efforts have frequently been criticized as inadequate or unresponsive to community needs. By federal law, telephone companies in most locations have been prohibited from operating cable systems. Cable service has traditionally been regulated by local municipalities operating under legal and regulatory guidelines propounded by Congress, the FCC, and state legislatures. These franchises must be renewed periodically, as well as whenever ownership changes.
Broadband cable operates as a carrier of television signals.
But the telephone operates in two directions, while cable, until recently, has been one-way. This advance in technology is the source of the current controversy. For the first time, broadband cable can provide telephone service. In the near-future, cable systems that serve as many as 60 to 70 percent of all households will be able to offer telephone service in competition with traditional local telephone companies. This has thrown the local telephone companies, which to date have managed to preserve their local monopolies, into a panic.