Telecommunications Regulation Reform Act of 1983

Telecommunications Regulation Reform Act of 1983 - Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revise, reduce, or eliminate telecommunication regulatory requirements with respect to: (1) any communication service or facility as competition develops and the need for regulation diminishes; or (2) any carrier that does not have the ability to affect any market price significantly. Directs the Commission to consider the extent to which a facility faces competition from alternative facilities that provide comparable service at comparable cost and that have sufficient capacity to ensure competitive pricing in the absence of regulation when establishing the appropriate level of regulation. Prohibits the FCC or any State commission from: (1) considering the revenues derived from any unregulated products or services offered by any common carrier in determining the revenue requirements of any service of such carrier, unless such carrier has filed a tariff with the FCC or such State commission that includes any cost of providing such unregulated products or services; (2) restricting the resale or shared use of any interexchange or enhanced service other than an international communication; or (3) regulating the manufacture, sale, or supply of any enhanced service, product, terminal equipment, or inside wiring, except that the FCC or a State commission shall have authority over the conduct of business between the regulated operations of common carriers and exchange common carriers and the unregulated operations of such carriers to ensure that the users of such service do not bear any costs associated with entry into such enhanced service market and to prevent any anticompetitive practice by carriers between offerings of enhanced services and offerings of common carrier or exchange services. Requires every exchange common carrier by the later of January 1, 1986, 30 days after receiving any written request, or the date specified by the FCC, to offer to all interexchange customers an element-by-element tariff for exchange access which is equal to access provided by such exchange common carrier to the interchange services that it or any other carrier offers. Directs the FCC to postpone the application of such requirements to any carrier which lacks appropriate electronic switching equipment or to any rural exchange if such postponement will avoid undue burdens on the carrier or its customers. Declares that no such postponement shall relieve any carrier from the terms of any judgment under Federal antitrust laws. Requires every exchange carrier to allow customers to interconnect to transmission services or facilities which it offers any terminal equipment, inside wiring, or transmission services or facilities. Prohibits any exchange common carrier from discriminating between affiliated and unaffiliated persons or among unaffiliated persons in providing communication services used in connection with terminal equipment, enhanced services, information publication services, or any other service. Requires any carrier to allow interconnection between any communication service it offers and any terminal equipment, inside wiring, or communication service or facility upon reasonable request. Directs any person which controls and offers inside wiring to promptly allow persons making reasonable requests to interconnect such wiring with any terminal equipment, inside wiring, or communication service or facility that meets FCC technical standards.

Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on June 21, 1983. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.

Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.