ITS 602 Purposes of the course Review the history of US telecommunications as a case study Examine the basics of regulation, especially as they apply to telecommunications and information Identify the major issues of current concern

Some questions to consider Do we need regulation? Does history matter? Why didn’t the U.S. Telecom Act of 1996 work?

Boundaries Type Set by Jurisdictional Regulatory category Service Technology Set by Law Regulator Courts

Boundaries

Classification of Services Not regulated--yet Regulated by FCC Regulated by FCC and State Commissions

Common Carrier Services FCC and State Commissions States???? FCC

Interstate and International Wireline Services local State LD State Access Interstate and International LD Interstate Access

The Players Regulators (federal and state) Service providers Customers Wireline providers Wireless providers Cable providers VoIP providers Customers Residential, small business, large business, service providers themselves

The Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) RBOCs NYNEX Bell Atlantic Bell Atlantic + GTE = Verizon (+MCI)= Verizon Pacific Telesis Southwestern Bell +SNET = SBC +AT&T = AT&T Ameritech Bell South U.S. West = Qwest Independents Alltel (now Windstream) Sprint United (then Embarq) Embarq+Century = CenturyLink Century Chillicothe +1300 more

Regional Bell Companies No longer Verizon Now AT&T Now AT&T Now AT&T No longer Verizon

10 largest ILECs in Ohio

And now today also . . . VoIP providers Wireless providers Interconnected Nomadic Wireless providers

Who provides what? In 1950 (all one monopoly) International and Interstate Long Distance: “old” AT&T Long Lines Local: “old” AT&T Local Operating Companies and the Independents State Long Distance: “old” AT&T Local Operating Companies and Independents Wireless—not much After 1984 (Local companies and Long distance companies) International and Interstate Long Distance: The New AT&T, MCI, Sprint, plus other Long Distance companies Local: RBOCs and Independents State Long Distance: RBOCs and Independents, and, after a few years, the long distance companies

After 1996 (supposed to be competition everywhere) International and Interstate Long Distance: AT&T, MCI, Sprint, other long distance companies, RBOCs Local: RBOCs, Independents, competitive providers (CLECs) State Long Distance: RBOCs, Independents, CLECs, AT&T, MCI, Sprint, other long distance companies

Competition from new providers/technologies Wireless providers Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint (Nextel) Internet access Cable modem services—cable television companies DSL—Local telephone companies and competitive providers (CLECs) VoIP providers

Lots of mergers Mergers: Wireless Cingular and AT&T Wireless Sprint and Nextel Wireline SBC and AT&T and Bell South Verizon and MCI More mergers, sales and acquisitions to come Verizon getting rid of rural areas

Industry Consolidation Biggest local telephone companies Verizon and AT&T Biggest wireless providers Biggest long distance providers AT&T (owned by former SBC) MCI (owned by Verizon)

Changes in ILEC Business plans Verizon is shedding rural properties Maine, NH, and Vermont sold to Fairpoint—went bankrupt Hawaii sold to private equity firm—went bankrupt Former GTE properties in 9 states sold to Frontier (including Athens, Ohio)—will it go bankrupt???? Ramping up wireless Shifts from copper to broadband and from circuit switching to IP networks AT&T’s U-Verse and Verizon’s FIOS

So, what do we have today? Cross platform competition Bundling of services Cable companies Cable TV, Cable Modem, Digital Phone (triple play) And Wireless ???? (quadruple play) Telephone companies Wireline telephone, DSL, Wireless (triple play And IPTV???? (quadruple play) Issues of pricing and service bundling????

Issues of concern Broadband deployment Regulatory status of VoIP Network neutrality (or can the FCC regulate the broadband network) Universal service—is it necessary? Who pays for it? How much should it cost? What should be included? Regulatory parity in cross platform competition Viability of competition, and the potential for monopoly And more . . . . . .

So….. What is the role of the regulator?