Ten Years Ago... Digital Tornado

DIGITAL TORNADO: THE INTERNET AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission 3/27/1997, AUTHOR: Kevin Werbach]
Ten years ago, the FCC released a staff-written Working Paper on the potential challenges and questions raised by the Internet for policy makers. This paper addresses three overlapping telecommunications policy areas that relate to the Internet: law, economics, and public policy. Legal questions arise from the difficulty in applying existing regulatory classifications to Internet-based services. Economic questions arise from the effects of Internet usage on the telecommunications infrastructure, and the effects of the telecommunications infrastructure on the Internet. Public policy questions arise from the need to maximize the public benefits that the Internet brings to society. The paper identified three policy goals: 1) Promote competition in voice, video, and interactive services. 2) Facilitate network investment and technological innovation. 3) Allow all citizens to benefit from advanced technologies.
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/OPP/working_papers/oppwp29.pdf