Telecommunications Act of 1996

[BAMBINO]

An act of the United States Congress that effectively superseded the 1982 Modified Final Judgement (MFJ), removing line-of-business restrictions and promising to permit full and open competition in virtually every aspect of communications, from radio broadcasting to CATV to local exchange service and long distance service.The local exchange networks were opened to competition, and the incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) were required to lease cable pairs, switch ports, central office (CO) space, and other elements of their networks to competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs).The act specified three ways by which CLECs could provide competing local phone service.