ABSTRACT
Normally one does not closely associate government regulation and the progress of technology or the lack of it. The railroads were the first major industry that became subject to federal and state regulation. In the regulated environment, there was little incentive for railroads operating low-cost routes in heavily trafficked corridors to expand capacity. Federal regulation came by authority of federal legislation passed between 1880 and 1920. One of the standard teachings of modern economics is that a competitive environment that satisfies certain conditions will result in a superior social result. The modern environmental movement is generally recognized as having begun with the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962. As traditionally applied, regulation of the electric utility industry worked under the assumption that the industry was a "natural monopoly." In the late twentieth century, there developed two basic approaches to supplying households with broadband communications capability: cable and digital subscriber lines from telephone companies.
