Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age (Paperback)

Description

With a new preface for the paperback edition

Telecommunications policy profoundly affects the economy and our everyday lives. Yet accounts of important telecommunications issues tend to be either superficial (and inaccurate) or mired in jargon and technical esoterica. In Digital Crossroads, Jonathan Nuechterlein and Philip Weiser offer a clear, balanced, and accessible analysis of competition policy issues in the telecommunications industry. After giving a big picture overview of the field, they present sharply reasoned analyses of the major technological, economic, and legal developments confronting communications policymakers in the twenty-first century.

Since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, when Congress fundamentally reoriented the existing regulatory scheme, no book has cogently explained the intricacies of telecommunications competition policy in the Internet age for general readers, students, and practitioners alike. Digital Crossroads meets this need, focusing on the regulatory dimensions of competition in wireline and wireless telephone service; competition among rival platforms for broadband Internet service and video distribution; and the Internet's transformation of every aspect of the telecommunications industry, particularly through the emergence of "voice over Internet protocol" (VoIP). The authors explain not just the complicated legal issues governing the industry, but also the rapidly changing technological and economic context in which these issues arise. The book includes extensive endnotes and tables that cover relevant court decisions, FCC orders, and academic commentaries; a glossary of acronyms; a statutory addendum containing the most important provisions of federal telecommunications law; and two appendixes with information on more specialized topics. Supplementary materials for students are available at http://spot.colorado.edu/~weiserpj.

Jonathan E. Nuechterlein is a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in Washington, DC. He served as Deputy General Counsel of the FCC in 2000-2001, as Assistant to the Solicitor General in 1996-2000, and as law clerk to US Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter.

Philip J. Weiser is Associate Professor of Law and Telecommunications at the University of Colorado and Executive Director and Founder of the Silicon Flatirons Telecommunications Program. He was principal telecommunications adviser to former Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein during the Clinton administration and previously served as law clerk for US Supreme Court Justices Byron R. White and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements xiii
 
 Preface xv
 
1. The Big Picture 1
 
2. Introduction to Wireline Telecommunications 31
 
3. Wireline Competition Under the 1996 Act 69
 
4. A Primer on Internet Technology 115
 
5. Monopoly Leveraging Concerns and the Internet 149
 
6. VoIP and Proposals for "Horizontal" Regulation 191
 
7. The Spectrum 225
 
8. Mobile Wireless Services 261
 
9. Intercarrier Compensation 291
 
10. Universal Service in the Age of Competition 333
 
11. Competition in the Delivery of Television Programming 357
 
12. Telecommunications Standards, Technological Transitions, and Digital Television 385
 
13. The Future of Telecommunications Policy 407
 
 Appendix A: The Pricing of Network Elements 431
 
 Appendix B: Enforcement Mechanisms Under the 1996 Act 455
 
 Statutory Addendum 461
 
 List of Notable Commentaries 493
 
 Table of Authorities 513
 
 Notes 533
 
 Index 643
 
 Glossary of Acronyms 667