| A Strategic Dialog on Innovative Approaches to Promote Universal Access to Advanced Telecommunications Capabilities OVERALL OBJECTIVE: Speed Advanced Services Deployment To Under-Served Areas And Customers Through Coordinated Action Among Federal, State, Local, Industry And Non-Profit Initiatives And Defining Policies, Mechanisms And Resource Allocation Needs To Support Universal Access To Such Services. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 ("Act") requires that all Americans have access to both basic and advanced telecommunications services, that are reasonably comparable in price and quality to those services provided in urban areas. The task of providing rural, low-income, disabled, and other under-served populations with affordable access to advanced services is particularly challenging. A Joint Conference, as authorized in Section 410(b) of the Act, 47 U.S.C. § 410(1982), can respond, in part, to obligations assigned to state and federal regulators under § 706 of the Act. 47 USC § 706 (1996). The FCC has completed its first NOI and report concerning the availability of advanced services required by § 706(b). A Joint Conference can complement the FCC's actions to date and focus on the requirements in § 706(a) for the FCC and "each state commission . . . [to] encourage the deployment on a reasonable and timely basis of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans (including, in particular, elementary and secondary schools and classrooms) by utilizing, in a manner consistent with the public interest, convenience and necessity, price cap regulation, regulatory forbearance, measures that promote competition in the local telecommunications market, or other regulating methods that remove barriers to infrastructure investment." | |
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