Building on attempts during the 1980s to establish principles of Open Network Architecture (ONA), unbundling obligations became a cornerstone of the framework for local competition devised by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Several of the regulations developed by the Federal Communications...

Convergence is a multi-facetted phenomenon affecting the technological basis of information and communication industries, the boundaries of existing and new markets, and the organization of service providers. Convergence in substitutes will tend to increase the intensity of competition but...