ABSTRACT

Modern communications technology, enhanced by the computer, its digital technology, and the advent of the satellite, offers unmatched potential for enhancing this Nation's telecommunications systems and promoting innovative services for the public. The laws must stem from a coherent national communications policy which is based on balanced perspectives of the future that lie somewhere between academic optimism, industrial opportunism, and public pessimism. Nicholas Zapple has noted that the regulatory policies have permitted the regulated communications industry to attain rates of growth and levels of prosperity that surpass all other regulated industries. The Nation's telecommunication industry will continue to grow and change for the better as a result of the Commission's competitive policies and the opportunities and market forces that they generate. There will always be a need for competition to accommodate the give and take between the availability of various communications capabilities and the applications that people think of for using those capabilities.