Regulatory policies toward local exchange companies under emerging competition: guardrails or speed bumps on the information highway?

Abstract The Telecommunications Act of 1996 provides a fundamental shift in the policy parameters within which regulators are to implement telecommunications policy. Within the parameters established by the Act, however, considerable discretion remains on the part of those charged with the task of implementing the law. In this paper, we identify a set of policy guideposts based on sound economic principles that can be used by regulators to implement the Act. Specifically, these competition-enabling policies will foster the goals of promoting and protecting competition.

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