Communications Policy in Transition: The Internet and Beyond

✍ Scribed by Benjamin M. Compaine, Shane Greenstein

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 448
• Series: Telecommunications Policy Research Conference
• Edition: 1st
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Until the 1980s, it was presumed that technical change in most communications services could easily be monitored from centralized state and federal agencies. This presumption was long outdated prior to the commercialization of the Internet. With the Internet, the long-forecast convergence of voice, video, and text bits became a reality. Legislation, capped by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, created new quasi-standards such as "fair" and "reasonable" for the FCC and courts to apply, leading to nonstop litigation and occasional gridlock.This book addresses some of the many telecommunications areas on which public policy makers, corporate strategists, and social activists must reach agreement. Topics include the regulation of access, Internet architecture in a commercial era, communications infrastructure development, the Digital Divide, and information policy issues such as intellectual property and the retransmission of TV programming via the Internet.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
Introduction......Page 12
Contributors......Page 22
I: Differing Regulatory Treatment of Access Modes......Page 24
1 Where Internet Service Providers and Telephone Companies Compete: A Guide to the Computer Inquiries, Enhanced Service Providers, and Information.........Page 26
2 Broadband Architectures, ISP Business Plans, and Open Access......Page 58
3 Regulatory Treatment of IP Transport and Services......Page 82
II: Internet Architecture Design in a Competitive Era......Page 112
4 Rethinking the Design of the Internet: The End-to-End Arguments vs. the Brave New World......Page 114
5 The InterNAT: Policy Implications of the Internet Architecture Debate......Page 164
6 The Potential for Scrutiny of Internet Peering Policies in Multilateral Forums......Page 182
7 Wireline vs. Wireless Internet Access: Comparing the United States and Japan......Page 218
III: Dilemmas in Development of Communications Infrastructure......Page 242
8 Developing Telecommunications Infrastructure: State and Local Policy Collisions......Page 244
9 From C to Shining C: Competition and Cross-Subsidy in Communications......Page 264
IV: The End of the Digital Divide?......Page 286
10 Unexpected Outcomes in Digital Divide Policy: What Children Really Do in the Public Library......Page 288
11 Accessibility of Broadband Telecommunications Services by Various Segments of the American Population......Page 318
12 Reexamining the Digital Divide......Page 344
V: Information Policy and Commercial Internet Behavior......Page 372
13 Sorting Out the Search Engine Market......Page 374
14 Copyright in the Age of Distributed Applications......Page 392
15 Should Congress Establish a Compulsory License for Internet Video Providers to Retransmit Over-the-Air TV Station Programming via the Internet?......Page 420
C......Page 440
E......Page 442
I......Page 443
N......Page 445
R......Page 446
T......Page 447
W......Page 448