The creation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 immediately brought about changes and new developments within the industry, as the intention of the act was to let the free market rule through a great reduction in governmental regulation and restrictions: the hope was that through this deregulation, there would be a huge spark in competition and technological innovations, thus driving down consumer prices.
However, instead of a surge in competition, what immediately happened after the act was passed was a massive movement of mergers and consolidations within the telecommunications industry. At first this seemed bad, as the fear was that a single company could command dominance and assume a monopolistic economy in the field (the number of major media companies whittled down from 50 to just 6 within 22 years), but it ended up achieving what the act was meant to. Phone companies were able to offer Internet and TV services, cable providers could now offer phone and Internet, and such: This led to a select few companies that would rise and battle for dominance in the market, but that was good since now special attention was given to quality and service. Prices, more or less, were set at fair levels.
I can give a personal example in my area of Westchester, NY: Cablevision was absolutely HORRENDOUS TV service providers, they always charged higher rates and took away channels that were a part of basic cable. That was all on top of their atrocious customer service help; if a subscriber called Cablevision for a problem on Monday and the company said they’d be there between 1-5 that day, they’d actually show up sometime on Wednesday! Once Verizon offered TV (in addition to their already superb phone and then-new Internet service) in our area, my family quickly jumped ship from Cablevision and signed up for Verizon FiOS to provide us with phone, Internet, and TV: I can tell you through experience, we’ve been very satisfied for years now.
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