Ethical and Regulatory Issues Facing the Telecommunications Industry President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 into law in February 1996. The law amended previous legislation, primarily the Communications Act of 1934. The legislation regulates broadcasts by over-the-air television and radio stations, cable television operators, satellite broadcasters, landline telephone companies (local and long distance), and wireless telephone companies. The overall intent of the law was deregulation and competition. The law eliminated barriers between telecommunications companies, thus promoting competition. Deregulation was also intended to give consumers choice in local telephone service. In 1999, 98% of families had no choice in local service (Wikipedia, 2005). The passage of the law led to several mergers including AT&T's purchase of TCI Corporation, the merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX, the merger of Qwest and US West, the merger of SBC and AT&T, and the merger of Sprint and Nextel. The purpose of this document is to discuss the regulatory issues facing the telecommunications industry. In this document we will discuss a list of best practices in the telecommunications industry used to address regulatory issues, best practices used in other industries to address regulatory issues, and how best practices can be adapted to address regulatory issues in other industries.Regulatory IssuesThe Goals of The Telecommunications Act of 1996 provided for deregulation of the telecommunications industry and increased competition. The law deregulated the industry and increased competition, but created regulatory problems. Regulatory issues include, but are not limited to, compliance issues, organizational issues, and… half of the paper… Deal? Done! Retrieved October 23, 2005, from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/11/tech/main660486.shtmlCommunication Workers of America (2005). Local telephone spin-off of Sprint. Retrieved October 23, 2005, from http://cwa-union.aflcio.ga0.org/sprint/page.jsp?itemID=27269619Loube, R. (2003). Universal service: how much is enough? Journal of Economic Issues, 37(2), 433-440.Mercer Corporation (2005). Mergers and acquisitions integration strategy. Retrieved October 23, 2005, from http://www.mercerhr.com/service/details.jhtml;jsessionid=ADGI00GQ2AVY2CTGOUGCHPQKMZ0QYI2C?idContent=1000340Networkworld (2005). Sprint/Nextel was the easy one. Retrieved October 22, 2005, from http://www.networkworld.com/weblogs/wan/009706.htmlWikipedia (2005). Telecommunications Act of 1996. Retrieved October 23, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996