Universal service in the United States: a focus on mobile communications.: An article from: Federal Communications Law Journal
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Book Details
Author(s)
Steve G. Parsons, James Bixby
Publisher
Federal Communications Law Journal
ISBN / ASIN
B003DYRNZK
ISBN-13
978B003DYRNZ9
Marketplace
France 🇫🇷
Description
This digital document is an article from Federal Communications Law Journal, published by Federal Communications Law Journal on January 1, 2010. The length of the article is 15420 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
From the author: The concept of universal service, providing affordable telecommunications to all citizens, has a long and changing history in the United States. Prior to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, efforts to achieve universal service were largely based on a complex web of implicit subsidies to basic landline local exchange residential service. The Act expanded and codified the concept of universal service and made the subsidies largely explicit. This Article evaluates the possible economic rationales for subsidizing voice communications and find them lacking. This Article argues that the weak rationale for subsidizing basic voice communications makes it critical that U.S. universal-service policy be competitively neutral with respect to firms and technologies in order to minimize distortions of market processes. However, past regulatory policies have favored wireline vis-a-vis mobile technologies. Moreover, four recent regulatory events threaten to perpetuate and exacerbate the asymmetric treatment of mobile technologies. The recent appointment of three new FCC commissioners may provide an opportunity for more economically rational and competitively neutral policy and funding mechanisms in the future.
Citation Details
Title: Universal service in the United States: a focus on mobile communications.
Author: Steve G. Parsons
Publication:Federal Communications Law Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2010
Publisher: Federal Communications Law Journal
Volume: 62 Issue: 1 Page: 119(33)
Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
From the author: The concept of universal service, providing affordable telecommunications to all citizens, has a long and changing history in the United States. Prior to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, efforts to achieve universal service were largely based on a complex web of implicit subsidies to basic landline local exchange residential service. The Act expanded and codified the concept of universal service and made the subsidies largely explicit. This Article evaluates the possible economic rationales for subsidizing voice communications and find them lacking. This Article argues that the weak rationale for subsidizing basic voice communications makes it critical that U.S. universal-service policy be competitively neutral with respect to firms and technologies in order to minimize distortions of market processes. However, past regulatory policies have favored wireline vis-a-vis mobile technologies. Moreover, four recent regulatory events threaten to perpetuate and exacerbate the asymmetric treatment of mobile technologies. The recent appointment of three new FCC commissioners may provide an opportunity for more economically rational and competitively neutral policy and funding mechanisms in the future.
Citation Details
Title: Universal service in the United States: a focus on mobile communications.
Author: Steve G. Parsons
Publication:Federal Communications Law Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2010
Publisher: Federal Communications Law Journal
Volume: 62 Issue: 1 Page: 119(33)
Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
