 and hard-to-cable areas. Currently, subsidies support only voice, not broadband. Regulators are reviewing ways to pro- mote universal broadband services that carry voice and Internet connections as IP packets in these areas. Competition, Industry Structures, and Regulations Universal Service and Guaranteed Rate of Return In 1913, when the former AT&T was given a monopoly in telecommunications service in the United States, it made a commitment to offer reasonably priced universal ser- vices everywhere in its territories. In exchange, the government guaranteed that AT&T could earn a specific rate of return on its telecommunications services. This marked the beginning of the concepts of universal service and rate of return guarantees. In the absence of competition between 1913 and its 1984 split-up, AT&T used artificially high long-distance rates to subsidize local services. While rate of return guarantees did not encourage efficient operations, they did enable the company to invest in research and development through its Bell Labs divi- sion. AT&T inventions included touch-tone service, integrated circuits, and laser tech- nologies. These innovations were freely available without patent fees, were adopted worldwide, and are one of the reasons that global networks are compatible with one another today. In the late 1970s, the introduction of competition from lower-cost long-distance providers such as MCI and Sprint made it untenable for AT&T to continue charging high fees for its own long-distance calling. Gradually, AT&T lowered its long-distance fees and increased its local service rates to compensate. To make up for local service subsidies, regulators set fees for carriers to pay one another for connecting calls to one another's customers. These are known as Intercarrier Compensation (ICC) fees, and they marked the beginning of the imposition of access charges. Voice over Internet Protocol Regulations-Information versus Telephone Service In February 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that com