Entry Prices in Telecommunications Then and Now

Peter Temin
MIT and Weber Temin & Co.

Abstract

I review the history of FCC attempts to come to grips with the
nature of costs in the telephone network. I describe the regulatory
history of AT&T's Telpak tariff in the 1960s, its ENFIA tariff in
the 1970s, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. I conclude that
the language used by the FCC has changed, but the underlying
analysis and confusion about policy toward common costs of different
services has not. The same battles have been going on now for 30
years with many changes of language, but little advance in clarity
or agreement.