[7] The 1934 Act created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC),[7] the agency assigned to implement and administer the economic regulation of the interstate activities of telephone companies (then dominated by the AT&T monopoly) and the licensing of spectrum used for broadcasting and other purposes.

[8] Starting in the 1970s, a combination of technological change, court decisions, and updates to American policy goals enabled competitive entry by new companies into some telecommunications and broadcasting markets.

[10] A report by the House of Representatives stated that the goal of the new legislation was to "provide for a pro-competitive, de-regulatory national policy framework designed to accelerate rapidly private sector deployment of advanced information technologies and services to all Americans by opening all telecommunications markets to competition".

[15][16] Regional Bell Operating Companies, who were previously subjected to strict regulations to provide only local telephone service, were allowed to enter the long-distance market.

[17] The 1996 Act also introduced more precise and detailed regulations for the funding of universal service programs via subsidies generated by monthly customer fees.

"[30] On the other hand, a Brookings Institution study concluded that the act incentivized upgrades to telecommunications infrastructure and new construction, despite increased industry concentration.

The act's structure of regulations based on type of network infrastructure failed to predict technological convergence and created awkward regulatory burdens for companies operating in multiple segments of media and telecommunications markets.

[37] In the 2003 edition of his book A People's History of the United States, historian Howard Zinn named the act as a significant factor in the loss of alternative and community media, and possibly the loss of public control of information: the Telecommunications Act of 1996...enabled the handful of corporations dominating the airwaves to expand their power further.

Mergers enabled tighter control of information...The Latin American writer Eduardo Galeano commented..."Never have so many been held incommunicado by so few.