The Regulatory History and Environment for Development of Telecommunications Systems in the United States

摘要

This paper explores the development of telecommunications systems in the United States as a result of regulation and deregulation of the telecommunications industry. The systems engineer should understand evolution of the structure of the telecommunications industry from multiple viewpoints. This paper examines the industry from the legislative history, major court decisions, and the regulatory activities of the federal and state governments. A comparison of the Telecommunications Acts of 1934 and 1996 is developed and the historical environment, as well as the technologies and innovations that stimulated their creation, is also examined. The thesis of this paper is that the telecommunications industry is creating global changes that will alter the international community during the 21st century more significantly than the industrial revolution did in the 19th and 20th centuries.