Responding to the overwhelming consensus that telecommunications could not thrive without statutory deregulation, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Today, though, telecommunications is back to business as usual. An activist FCC has found new ways to keep itself busy, while competitors trade bitter accusations and file reams of paper. The promised explosion of bandwidth is fizzling out. Defenders of the 1996 act say that, for now, we need the FCC and regulation, to grow competition.
Deregulation can come later.
For the time being, building bandwidth has taken a back seat to short-term political goals, most of them manifested by little more than finger pointing and name calling. Lobbyists, pundits and politicians find it easy to bash the former Bell Operating Companies. Some lawmakers and regulators like to point fingers at cable companies for raising rates. But the abandonment of price regulation and universal service cross-subsidies would do much more for bandwidth than taxing and spending by sleight of hand. To encourage competition, prices must be allowed to rise and fall freely.