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A SHORT SUMMARY OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM ACT OF 1996
For the past three years, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have
worked for telecommunications reform that stimulates private investment,
promotes competition, protects diversity of viewpoints and voices among the
media, provides families with technologies to help them control the kinds of
television programs that come into their homes, and strengthens and improves
universal service so that all Americans can have access to the benefits of the
information superhighway. With passage of the Telecommunications Reform Act of
1996, this important national goal has been met. Signed into law by President
Clinton today this legislation will lead all Americans into a more prosperous
future by preparing our economy for the 21st Century and opening wide the door
to the Information Age.
Universal Service
The President and Vice President want to ensure that all Americans have
access to the benefits of the information superhighway. The Act ensures that
schools, libraries, hospitals and clinics have access to advanced
telecommunications services, and calls for them to be connected to the
information superhighway by the year 2000. It will help connect every school
child in every classroom in America to the information superhighway -- opening
up worlds of knowledge and opportunities in rural and low-income areas.
The V-Chip
Because President Clinton and Vice President Gore believe strongly that
families should be able to exercise control over how the media influences their
children, the Act includes a provision calling for a computer chip, called the
V-Chip, to be installed in every new television set. This provision is critical
to give parents control of the television programming that comes into their
homes by allowing them to block electronically violent or other objectional
material.
Media Ownership
Because President Clinton and Vice President Gore believe that diversity of
voices and viewpoints is critical to our democracy, the Act will prevent undue
concentration of television and radio ownership. The Act limits the number of
stations one entity can own to stations that reach up to 35 percent of all
national TV viewers, and keeps existing rules that forbid one
company from owning two TV stations in a local market, or a newspaper and TV
station in the same market, or a newspaper and cable in the same market. The
Act also maintains the ownership ban of a cable company and a broadcast company
in the same market.
Phone Service
The President and Vice President believe that when the walls of regulations
are brought down, prices come down for American consumers. This Act breaks down
the Berlin Walls of regulation that previously kept local Bell Telephone
companies and long-distance telephone
companies from competing with one another, while keeping safeguards in place
to ensure competition and serve the public interest.
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