Rural Areas in the New Telecommunications Era

The new Telecommunications Act, enacted in 1996, was the first comprehensive rewrite of the Communications Act of 1934 that had ushered in an era of universal phone service for rural areas. The 1996 Act’s provisions fall into five major areas: telephone service, telecommunications equipment manufacturing, cable television, radio and television broadcasting, and the Internet and online computer services. All these provisions will affect rural areas, but universal service is the most critical. Without the universal service provision rural areas may rapidly fall behind urban areas. In May 1997, the Federal Communications Commission enacted regulatory provisions for universal service