Nearly a year and a half after passage of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, real competition has yet to emerge in Indiana in local telephone markets, according to a report issued by the Indiana Regulatory Commission.
Nevertheless, the U.R.C. says it anticipates making competitive choices available to local consumers in the coming months.
"The much-anticipated benefits of competition have been delayed because the ambitious time frames mandated by the act do not provide adequate time to effectively deal with complex issues and many of the orders of the Federal Communications Commission and the Indiana commission have been appealed in federal court," the report stated.
Since passage of the federal act mandating local telephone service competition, the Indiana U.R.C. has arbitrated seven proposals for interconnection between companies that want to compete for local service and the incumbent local providers. The Indiana report on telephone competition is submitted annually to the Regulatory Flexibility Committee of the General Assembly.
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