Civilrights.org

The Success and Failure of the 1996 Telecommunications Act

June 1, 2002

This collection of essays was produced and edited by the Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, a project of the Tides Center. It is a joint publication of the Center for Reflective Community Practice at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Leadership Conference Education Fund.

Contents

• Acknowledgments and Caveat

Preface

• From the Leadership Conference Education Fund
• From MIT's Center for Reflective Community Practice

Introduction

• Off Course on a Long Dark Road
  by Mark Lloyd

Part One

Promoting Access

• Section 254 - Universal Service: A SuccessUnder Attack - The E-Rate and Beyond
  by Sean O'Sullivan
• Section 255 - Promoting Access by Persons with Disabilities: Mainstreaming Communicationsby Karen Peltz Strauss and Bruce Maxwell
• Section 706 - Promoting Access to Advanced Telecommunications Services: The FCC's Third Report on Broadband Deployment - Inequitable Untimely and Unreasonable
  by Allen Hammond
• The Impact on Rural America
  by Mark Lloyd and Lynne Montgomery

Part Two

Mergers and Spectrum Policy - Diversity and the Public Interest

• Section 202 - Broadcast Ownership: A Gift to Big Media
  by Janine Jaquet
• Media Mergers (1995-2001)
• A Brief Note on Mergers in the Telecommunications Industry
  by Mark Lloyd
• Telecom Mergers (1996-2001) 
• Section 336 - Broadcast Spectrum Flexibility: Spectrum Auction Ideology Under the Microscope
  by Bennett Z. Kobb

Part Three

Correcting a History of Discrimination - Equity in Licensing and Access to Capital

• Section 257 - Eliminating Market Entry Barriers: The Best New Hope for Diversity and Inclusion
  by David Honig and Moushumi Khan 155
• Section 714 -- The Telecommunications Development Fund: Making a Difference?
  by S. Jenell Trigg

Afterword

• Does the Digital Divide Still Exist? Bush Administration Shrugs - But Evidence Says "Yes"
  by Dr. Mark N. Cooper

Appendix

• The Authors
• About the Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy
• About the Leadership Conference Education Fund
• About MIT's Center for Reflective Community Practice