Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Philip J. Weiser (Author) "The word "telecommunications," a twentieth century amalgam of Greek and Latin roots, literally means the art of conveying information "from a distance..." (more)
Key Phrases: video distribution platforms, intercarrier compensation rules, leveraging concerns, United States, Communications Act, Supreme Court (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Digital Crossroads brings fresh clarity to a complex subject. It is thorough, comprehensive, and insightful, and will prove invaluable to anyone trying to navigate the tumultuous changes of the digital age."
—The Honorable Michael K. Powell

"Digital Crossroads is an essential read for anyone interested in the history-making changes occurring in communications, an industry at the heart of the American economy. It lucidly explains how and why public policy must change to accommodate the Internet's revolutionary impact on the way people communicate. This book is a long-overdue voice of insight and reason in a field too often marked by simplistic, self-serving rhetoric."
—Jim Crowe, CEO, Level 3 Communications, Inc.

"A magnificent achievement. As someone who has been involved over the last four decades in what was once known as the 'telephone' business, I found Digital Crossroads an extraordinarily lucid description and explanation of the revolutionary significance of its transformation into 'telecommunications.' The new proliferation of services that are available from an array of vendors shoots all sorts of holes in a system of government regulation designed both to protect captive consumers from local telephone franchisees and to force those one-time monopolists to share facilities with their rivals in order to stimulate local competition. Digital Crossroads is not exactly light bedtime reading, but for anyone attempting to grasp these changes in our digital age, it is full of clear explanations and fair-minded assessments of the continuing regulatory issues they raise. This is a marvelous book, and well worth working through from cover to cover, as I have done."
—Alfred E. Kahn, former Chairman of the New York Public Service Commission and Civil Aeronautics Board, and Advisor to President Carter on Inflation

"An amazingly good book, written by two lawyers who really know what is (and was) going on. Everything in this extremely complex industry is covered, thoroughly and lucidly. This book makes the murky subject of telecommunications as the base technology for the Internet crystal clear, and the authors get it right."
—Gerald R. Faulhaber, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and former Chief Economist, Federal Communications Commission

"Jon Nuechterlein and Phil Weiser have written *the* book on domestic telecommunications policy. First, this timely book is very readable from the perspective of any interested layperson trying to understand today's intense and often complex debates on crucial issues in the field. At the same time, the authors' comprehensive and studious analysis—not only of the legal aspects of the issues, but also of the technological, business, and economic developments surrounding those issues—makes the book indispensable for serious scholars and professionals involved in telecommunications policymaking."
—Dale Hatfield, former Chief Technologist and former Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, Federal Communications Commission

Product Description

Telecommunications policy profoundly affects the economy and our everyday lives. Yet accounts of important telecommunications issues tend to be either superficial (and inaccurate) or mired in jargon and technical esoterica. In Digital Crossroads, Jonathan Nuechterlein and Philip Weiser offer a clear, balanced, and accessible analysis of competition policy issues in the telecommunications industry. After giving a big picture overview of the field, they present sharply reasoned analyses of the major technological, economic, and legal developments confronting communications policymakers in the twenty-first century.

Since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, when Congress fundamentally reoriented the existing regulatory scheme, no book has cogently explained the intricacies of telecommunications competition policy in the Internet age for general readers, students, and practitioners alike. Digital Crossroads meets this need, focusing on the regulatory dimensions of competition in wireline and wireless telephone service; competition among rival platforms for broadband Internet service and video distribution; and the Internet's transformation of every aspect of the telecommunications industry, particularly through the emergence of "voice over Internet protocol" (VoIP). The authors explain not just the complicated legal issues governing the industry, but also the rapidly changing technological and economic context in which these issues arise. The book includes extensive endnotes and tables that cover relevant court decisions, FCC orders, and academic commentaries; a glossary of acronyms; a statutory addendum containing the most important provisions of federal telecommunications law; and two appendixes with information on more specialized topics.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; illustrated edition edition (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262140918
• ISBN-13: 978-0262140911
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #730,134 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Telecommunications for non-specialists, August 30, 2005

By	Adele Fasick (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In Digital Crossroads, the authors, both lawyers with experience in telecommunications, offer a readable guide to the complex regulatory policies shaping electronic communication. Starting with the economic principles that have guided government agencies through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, they give a basic history of the development of wireline communication, primarily through telephone, and explain how the advent of wireless technology via radio, television, cell phones, and the Internet have affected policies and practices. Although it is not easy reading, both the technical and legal aspects of communication are made clear even to a reader who is neither a lawyer nor an engineer. The policies discussed in this book will affect every citizen who cares about obtaining and communicating information to individuals and groups. Understanding the background given here, will help individuals follow the current legislative news as Congress revises the 1996 Telecommunications Act. This is a book many community groups and activists should read and discuss.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars That rare combination: comprehensive and accessible, May 23, 2005

By	Eleanor Stein "Visiting Professor, Albany Law... (Albany, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Digital Crossroads is that rare combination, a comprehensive and accurate -- but well-written and accessible -- presentation of the state of the technology, economics, and law driving today's complex telecommunications industry. I used it in my Albany Law School seminar on Telecommunications Law for the 21st Century, and students found it highly accessible--especially the technology chapters. The book is a real accomplishment: comprehensive, thoughtful, and forward-looking, without being swept away by the latest gimmick off the shelf. It is also an extremely well written and organized book, clear and authoritative. In addition, for either the practitioner or academic, the inclusion of relevant sections of the 1996 Telecommunications Act adds value and convenience. Making coherent sense of this industry, its history and trajectory, is a daunting challenge and one the authors met, apparently without flinching.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Summary of a Fast Moving Target, September 13, 2009

By	Mark Seidenfeld - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age (Paperback)

A long time ago (eons in terms of telecommunication regulation) I worked as a lawyer regulating telephone companies. I am now a law professor and and have taught telecommunications law on and off over the years. The greatest challenge for the course was finding a text that summarized the policy and legal issues in a field that moves literally at light speed.

Digital Crossroads is such a book. It starts with a brief history of telephone communications, and proceeds to summarize the issues raised by regulation of traditional telephone service both historically and under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It then introduces the internet and discusses the challenges that raises both to regulation of the internet itself and the regulaton of telephony that it had previously introduced. It proceeds to introduce wireless communication and the convergence of broadcasting snd entertainment and discuss the impact of these topics in a similar fashion.

The strength of the book is that it organizes the material within each chapter in terms of economic and regulatory themes that repeat as different technologies and media are discussed, and that are the heart of debate about over any aspect of telecommunications regulation. Hence, it is relevent even though the industry has moved even since the book was published just a few years ago. (No book on this topic will ever be truly "up-to-date".) It is compehensive in its discussion of both economics, policy, law and regulation. The book is bit more supportive of simply not regulating several technologies/services than I am, but presents arguments both for and ageinst regulation even when it suggests that any regulation may be unwise.