" .
The act was enacted by the U.S. Congress on February 1, 1996 but was signed by the president, Bill Clinton at that time, on February 8, 1996. Its main purpose was to produce competition in the telecommunications area. Some of the main points of the act are summarized in an article of Whatis.com (2001) as, "How local telephone carriers can compete; How and under what circumstances local exchange carriers (LEC) can provide long-distance services; and the deregulation of cable TV rates." Furthermore, it limits the pornography accessible to children in the Internet.
In addition, Acccess-board.gov "s (2004) article indicates other guidelines covered in the act are on telecommunication products such as, "wired and wireless telecommunications devices, like telephones and fax machines; other products that can use the service such as computers with modems; and equipment carriers use to provide services, like phone companies switching equipment." All are stated because for some time Congress has tried to update the 1934 Communications Act in order to get into the wireless age; it was unable to because as Senator Pressler explained, in the Congressional Record of the Senate, "Bell companies have the local telephone service, the long-distance companies have the long-distance service, the cable companies have their section, the broadcast companies have their section. This bill attempts to get everybody into everybody else's business and let in new entrants" (1996, Congressional Record of the Senate). Everyone will have any equal share of growing but at the same time the service will be good for the public.
Regulations.
The act, itself, states that it is to promote competition and reduce regulation in order to secure lower prices and higher quality services for American telecommunications consumers and encourage the rapid deployment of new telecommunications technologies. These are the sections of the rules: .
