IMPACTS OF THE 1996 TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT ON THE US MODEL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY

The 1996 Telecommunications Act provides mechanisms for all parties to pursue their interests. For instance,the Act incorporates two differe nt and complementary approaches: (a) it authorizes all operators to op erate in businesses from which they were previously excluded. (b) it i ncorporates some legal procedures and regulatory constraints, that pro vide parties with tools to defend their territories, excluding other o perators, A striking example is the 'competitive checklist' for RBOCs to enter the interLATA long distance market. The undesired result of t his approach is both the creation of enormous business opportunities f or lawyers and a stalemate, because all parties have been quite succes sful in adopting defensive strategies to block others' initiatives. Th is has happened to the detriment of offensive moves that, as everyone hoped, would have increased competition in all markets and, as a conse quence, the availability of innovative high quality services for the p ublic at low prices. Analysis of the US regulatory model in the teleco mmunications sector, and in particular the specific studies carried ou t in three States, have led to a series of conclusions that can provid e guidelines on the type of issues and some possible solutions with re gard to telecommunications liberalization, relationships between diffe rent levers of regulation (e.g. federal/State), operators' strategic m oves in response to regulation. The analysis of the US model, even tho ugh it is very much related to country-specific conditions, allows us to isolate some issues that other countries, and among them Italy, wil l be likely to face in the short term. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.