This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. Journal of Economic Perspectives
  4. Fall 1997
  5. Meddling Through: Regulating Local Telephone Competition in the United States

Journal of Economic Perspectives

ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)

Meddling Through: Regulating Local Telephone Competition in the United States

  • Robert G. Harris
  • C. Jeffrey Kraft
Journal of Economic Perspectives
vol. 11, no. 4, Fall 1997
(pp. 93–112)
Download Full Text PDF
(Complimentary)

Abstract

After a brief history of telecommunication policies and the development of local competition in the United States, this paper analyzes the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and subsequent FCC and state regulatory decisions. Unfortunately, these recent policy changes have generated pervasive, intrusive regulations, undermining the objectives the Telecom Act was intended to promote: competition, innovation, and investment in telecommunications infrastructure. States should allow incumbent local carriers to rebalance their retail rates and set interconnection prices based on actual costs. Federal policymakers should reduce and liberalize regulations, allowing market forces more freedom to allocate resources and shape industry structure.

Citation

Harris, Robert G., and C. Jeffrey Kraft. 1997. "Meddling Through: Regulating Local Telephone Competition in the United States." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 11 (4): 93–112. DOI: 10.1257/jep.11.4.93

JEL Classification

  • L98 Industry Studies: Utilities and Transportation: Government Policy
  • L96 Telecommunications
There are no comments for this article.
Login to Comment