The rapid development of Internet applications and digital convergence has already rendered the Telecom Act of 1996 largely obsolete and a source of contentious regulatory uncertainty. Sen. Ted Stevens, the likely new Senate Commerce Committee Chairman, is expected to initiate a major debate on overhauling the Act next year. Voice over IP and the potential for wireless broadband as an alternative last-mile pipe further complicate the policy debate.

The U. S. telecommunications industry has been through some tough times over the past few years. Yet, new technologies as well as entirely new networks have emerged in the industry. Today, wireless and cable networks compete with traditional phone providers. IP networks and applications -- such as Instant Messaging and email -- have emerged to compete with traditional voice service in ways never anticipated by the writers of the Telecom Act. These changes have given Americans many options when they want to communicate.

In this sure-to-be controversial book released April 9, 2004 but not yet available in bookstores, Charles Ferguson attacks just about every sacred shibboleth of today's FCC policy agenda. Why is the U.S. falling behind the rest of the world in deployment of next generation broadband service? Why does the rest of the information technology sector follow Moore's Law but the last-mile broadband network act like a mid-20th century smokestack industry? Look no further than the FCC. The FCC doesn't have a pro-competition agenda; it has a pro-monopoly agenda.

U.S. policymakers face a virtual conundrum: how to best incorporate the new Internet Protocol (IP)-centric services, applications, and facilities into the nation's pre-existing legal and public policy construct. Over the next several years, legislators and regulators will find themselves increasingly challenged to make the Internet adapt itself to the already well-defined bricks-and-mortar, services-and-technologies environment that exists today under the Communications Act and other statues.