Telecommunications Act of 1996

Telecommunications Act of 1996

Other short titles	Communications Decency Act of 1996
Long title	An Act to promote competition and reduce regulation in order to secure lower prices and higher quality services for American telecommunications consumers and encourage the rapid development of new telecommunications technologies.
Nicknames	Communications Act of 1995
Enacted by	the 104th United States Congress
Effective	February 8, 1996
Citations
Public law	104-104
Statutes at Large	110 Stat. 56
Codification
Acts amended	Communications Act of 1934
Titles amended	47 U.S.C.: Telegraphy
U.S.C. sections amended	47 U.S.C. ch. 5, subch. VI § 609 47 U.S.C. ch. 5, subch. II § 251 et seq. 47 U.S.C. ch. 5, subch. I § 151 et seq. 47 U.S.C. ch. 5, subch. II § 271 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 652 by Larry Pressler (R-SD) on March 30, 1995 Committee consideration by Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Passed the Senate on June 15, 1995 (81-18 Roll call vote 268, via Senate.gov) Passed the House on October 12, 1995 (passed without objection) Reported by the joint conference committee on January 31, 1996; agreed to by the House on February 1, 1996 (414-16 Roll call vote 025, via Clerk.House.gov) and by the Senate on February 1, 1996 (91-5 Roll call vote 8, via Senate.gov) Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on February 8, 1996
United States Supreme Court cases
Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 (1997) AT&T Corp. v. Iowa Utilities Bd., 525 U.S. 366 (1999) United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group, Inc., 529 U.S. 803 (2000) National Cable & Telecommunications Assn., Inc. v. Gulf Power Co., 534 U.S. 327 (2002) Verizon Communications Inc. v. FCC, 535 U.S. 467 (2002) Verizon Maryland Inc. v. Public Service Commission of Maryland, 535 U.S. 635 (2002) Mathias v. WorldCom Technologies, Inc., 535 U.S. 682 (2002) Verizon Communications Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko, LLP, 540 U.S. 398 (2004) Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League, 541 U.S. 125 (2004) City of Rancho Palos Verdes v. Abrams, 544 U.S. 113 (2005) National Cable & Telecommunications Ass'n v. Brand X Internet Services, 545 U.S. 967 (2005) Talk America, Inc. v. Michigan Bell Telephone Co., 564 U.S. 50 (2011) Sprint Communications, Inc. v. Jacobs, 571 U.S. 69 (2013) T-Mobile South, LLC v. City of Roswell, 574 U.S. 293 (2015) FCC v. Prometheus Radio Project, No. 19-1231, 592 U.S. 2021 Gonzalez v. Google LLC, No. 21-1333, 598 U.S. ___ (2023) FCC v. Consumers' Research, No. 24-354, 604 U.S. ___ (2025)

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996 by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code. The act was the first significant overhaul of United States telecommunications law in more than sixty years, amending the Communications Act of 1934, and represented a major change in that law, because it was the first time that the Internet was added to American regulation of broadcasting and telephony.^[1]

The primary goal of the law was to "let anyone enter any communications business – to let any communications business compete in any market against any other."^[2] Thus, the statute is often described as an attempt to deregulate the American broadcasting and telecommunications markets due to technological convergence.^[3]

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 has been praised for incentivizing the expansion of networks and the offering of new services across the United States,^[4] though it is often criticized for enabling market concentration in the media and telecommunications industries.^[5][6]