The Incidental, Accidental Deregulation of Data . . . and Everything Else.

Existing regulatory codes for telephone, cable and broadcast treat 'data' services as largely beneath or outside official attention. 'Enhanced services' have been excluded from the ambit of 'basic,' regulated telephony. They are exempt from access charges and almost completely free of most other forms of common-carrier regulation. Data services provided over mobile radio, cable, terrestrial broadcast and Direct Broadcasting Satellite likewise are excused from most forms of rate, content and carriage regulation. Data has long been the 'incidental' service tagged onto something else older and more important. As such, data has been the fortunate beneficiary of regulatory accident, inattention, neglect and indifference. Wires and radios alike will all soon be digital, and bandwidth is increasing rapidly in every medium. 'Data' traffic is growing far faster than analog voice or video. And on broadband digital channels 'data' encompasses everything. The data inmates are taking over the regulatory asylum. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.