In very simplistic terms, the Access Charge is the charge that local telcos charge other telecom companies such as long distance providers, for connecting to customers through the local telco. Under Computer Inquiry III and other regulations, enhanced service providers (which would include Internet service providers), are protected by regulation from having to pay an Access Charge. This is an Access Charge. This is not a "modem tax." It is a charge for access through equipment at the local telco (just about all telephone connections have to go through the local telco). The rationale for the REGULATORY PROTECTION is in general to protect and to nurture the growing online industry. Every few years something comes up before the FCC to DEREGULATE this particular area and thus allow the telcos to impose the Access Charge on enhanced service providers. The argument for imposing the Access Charge on enhanced service providers is that the online industry and the Internet are no longer in the infancy stages of development -- just look at the explosion of the Internet companies around the world. And the argument against the Access Charge is that the Internet and online industry is still in its infancy because electronic commerce is still not a common way of conducting business, etc. So the argument goes on and the Access Charge issue pops up every few years before the FCC.

This is a somewhat dated 1987 master's thesis that I wrote before the Internet evolved into the World Wide Web. This was during the days when you had to really know UNIX to manuver around the Internet. This was when stand-alone Computer Bulletin Boards (BBS) were KING. This was the time when you dialed and called from computer BBS to computer BBS (which were often stand-alone computers located in homes of computer users connected to telephones waiting for incoming modem calls) instead of surfing from website to website located on the Internet. This was written before the Internet became popular and when the consumer online market was still in the pre-infancy fetus stage. The people who were online were the computer hobbyists, techies, scientists, and educators. The big services around the time this master's thesis was written were CompuServe, GEnie, the Source, the WELL, BIX, and Telenet's PC Pursuit. Everyone has heard of CompuServe and the WELL is still around but now only as subscription discussion website. BIX was the online service for Byte Magazine. PC Pursuit was a $25 per month long-distance modem service where users can access a packet-switching service where users can call stand-alone computer bulletin board systems around the country. This was the time when if you wanted to connect to what was then the internet for email and internet USENET discussion newsgroup messages (no webpages at this time at all), you had to dial into a university mainframe system (if you had university privileges), or into a PNET system on a dial-up multi-line public access UNIX PC which connected to the university, or into a Proline BBS system which emulated a UNIX-like shell on a local dial-up single-line Apple II computer which later connected to a PNET to connect to the university to eventually pass the email or internet USENET newsgroup message to the arpanet/internet, and for having some sort of an apranet/internet email address with the old ! bang separators -- in those days you had to wait maybe a day or so for email and USENET messages to route through the various systems as they connected to each other in turn from the university connections to the various local dial-up BBS systems. This was before URL webpage links, before websites, before the World Wide Web, before Mosaic, before Netscape, before Internet Explorer, before Napster, and before instant messaging. So, some of the terminology is dated such as "CB Simulator" instead of Chat, etc.

To give you more of an idea as to how dated this document is, this master's thesis was originally written using WordStar on a Kaypro portable computer running the ZCPR3-CP/M operating system (CP/M came out before PC-DOS and MS-DOS) with a whopping 64K of RAM memory, 360K 5-1/4" floppies, an external one-megabyte ramdisk which was kept on all the time to serve as the equivalent of a high-speed harddrive, a 2400 bps (not Kbps but bps) modem, and a daisy-wheel printer. (FYI, at the time, the best PC-Pursuit auto-dialers were written in CP/M during this particular time.) In those days, WordStar and later WordPerfect were the kings of word processors and there was no such thing as Microsoft Word -- and Windows was what you looked out of if you wanted to see what was outside of a building.

So keep this background in mind if you choose to read this political science commentary regarding theorists' ideas regarding industry-capture of government regulators, deregulation, and the utilization of online "grass-roots" protests.

One idea that may be taken from this master's thesis is that deregulation may not take place if the deregulation is not in the industry's interest (or not in the interest of a major portion of the industry). Another idea that may also be taken from this master's thesis is that the industry may use or take advantage of the online community to counter any regulatory or deregulatory action that may not be in the interest of the industry. With the current day use of the Internet by everyday people who previously would not have gone online, a "grass-roots" campaign may be much easier to generate in today's world. With regard to regular non-telecom politics, watch for more online political campaigns with regard to today's political events.

Certain items were left out of this online version of my master's thesis such as the appendices particularly the how-to protest letters that were distributed back in the 1980s. This master's thesis was reformated to fit the HTML formatted pages presented here.

Cheers,
Ruel
1-28-98

Copyright 1987, 1998 Ruel Hernandez . All rights reserved. No part of this document and its associated pages may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise without the prior written permission of the author. In other words, go ahead read these pages and link to these pages, but DO NOT MIRROR THESE PAGES ON ANOTHER WEBSITE and DO NOT EMAIL THIS DOCUMENT'S PAGES. Just give people the LINK ADDRESS and tell them to surf over to this site. If you are writing an article or other document and wish to quote from this master's thesis, please properly cite and give credit to this master's thesis.

Quotation:

Information is the most fluid of commodities and telecommunications is the art of making it flow.

Peter W. Huber

ABSTRACT

Chapter I. INTRODUCTION

Chapter II. REGULATORY THEORY

Traditional Regulatory Industry Capture Theory

Regulators Refute Industry Capture

Telephone Deregulation Model

Telecommunications in the "Public Interest"

Regulatory Influence Models

Conclusion

Modified Final Judgment

Third Computer Inquiry

1987 Modified Final Judgment Review

The Geodesic Network: The Changed Environment

Conclusion

Scope of Services and Systems

Hobbyist Bulletin Board Systems

Online Activity and Political Impact

Conclusion

The Proposal

Reaction

Lessons of Computer III

Political Action

Conclusion

Deregulation Disenchantment

Industry Capture or Dependence?

Incomplete or Stalled Semantic Shift?

Symbiotic Relationships/Symbolic Rewards

Politics of Interests

APPENDICES (currently not online)

A. FCC Comment Drafting Guidelines
B. Telenet Mailings
Letter, June 29, 1987
Letter, August 12, 1987
Notice of Proposed Rule Making
Issue Analysis
U.S. Senators Listing
Letter, October 8, 1987

C. Online Chat with FCC Attorney Ruth Milkman
D. House Subcommittee Letter to FCC
E. "Modem Shock" Article