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[title] '; include("head.php"); ?> Wohlstetter, John C.
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Packet Plutocracy, Data Democracy, and the Bureaucracy
Wohlstetter, John C.
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This article examines FCC policy concerning access to advanced services that risks perpetuating a plutocracy of high-end users while delaying diffusion to the mass marketplace. John discusses how Sections 254 and 706 of the Telecom Act could potentially work at cross-purposes with each other, how the FCC interprets the interplay between these two sections, and whether this interplay could advance or delay rapid modernization of the public switched telephone network.

Packet Policies: Petabits, Photons, Phonemes, and the Feds
Wohlstetter, John C.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The author provides a candid look at FCC policy-making rules on incumbent LEC interconnection, availability of unbundled network elements, and universal access. He starts the discussion with a review of packet networks, then addresses the potential harm to ISP interests that may arise from these FCC rules. Finally, he suggests how proper regulation of packet networks can help the Internet flourish.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the FCC's "Spin"
Wohlstetter, John C.
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Focuses on the economic aspect of the 1996 Telecom Act embodied in interconnection and pricing policies, and the FCC's proposed order governing the prerequisite conditions of the LECs to gain entry into long distance and equipment markets. The author argues that the FCC is attempting to preempt state and legislative authority because it fears the LECs could stall interconnection at the balkanized state level more effectively than at the unitary federal level, which would be to the detriment of competition and the ability of non-LEC competitors to raise investment capital.

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