https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996 by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code. The act was the first significant overhaul of United States telecommunications law in more than sixty years, amending the Communications Act of 1934, and represented a major change in that law, because it was the first time that the Internet was added to American regulation of broadcasting and telephony.[1]
The primary goal of the law was to “let anyone enter any communications business – to let any communications business compete in any market against any other.”[2] Thus, the statute is often described as an attempt to deregulate the American broadcasting and telecommunications markets due to technological convergence.[3]
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 has been praised for incentivizing the expansion of networks and the offering of new services across the United States,[4] though it is often criticized for enabling market concentration in the media and telecommunications industries.[5][6]