The Unfinished Business of Breaking Up Ma Bell: Implementing Local Telephone Competition in the Twenty-first Century

Responding to the statutory deadline in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its first Local Competition Order (LCO), In Re Implementation of the Local Competition Provisions in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, First Report and Order, CC Docket No. 96-98 (FCC 96-325), on August 8, 1996. Designed to implement local competition nationwide, this Order in nearly 1500 pages promulgated detailed provisions regarding the relationship between the Regional Bell Operating Companies ( RBOCs ) (traditional monopoly providers of local telephone service) and new entrants in local telecommunications. This article focuses on several key provisions in the first LCO implementing §§ 251, 252, 271, and 272 of the Telecommunications Act and how these provisions affect local telecommunications competition as the twenty-first century begins. First, this article examines each of these critical statutory provisions in detail and how the FCC implemented them in the first LCO. Then this article looks at the legal challenges made to these regulations by both RBOCs and new entrants and the FCC\u27s response in its revised LCO