Parity: Implementing the Telecommunications Act of 1996

Abstract

We discuss various technical problems that have arisen in attempting to implement the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the purpose of which was to ensure fair competition in the local telecommunications market. We treat the interpretation of the "parity'' requirement, testing the parity hypothesis, the effect of correlation, disaggregation and reaggregation, "balancing,'' benchmarks, payment schedules and some computational problems. Also we discuss the difficulty of working in an adversarial (rather than scientific) environment.