Communications Law Bulletin, September 2008

The Month in Brief

As the general election season draws to its close, the industry continues to sort out the shape of the competitive environment that was created in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. As discussed further below, fundamental regulatory issues such as universal service funding, intercarrier compensation, and preemption of local regulation of telecommunications services are in play at the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC" or "Commission"), the courts, and the states. At the same time, as two "tip boxes" in this issue point out, the FCC has increased applications fees and stepped up enforcement of its customer proprietary network information rules.

These and other developments are covered in this issue of our Bulletin, along with our usual list of deadlines for your calendar.