 change to its regulations on pole attachments. The industry groups contended that a single truck roll is necessary to build out fifth generation infrastructure and backhaul fiber facilities without the delays of requesting permission separately to change or move each telephone pole and attachment. Currently, each provider sends its own installer to do the work. The new rules, which allow contractors to do the pole changes, was opposed by the unionized installers retained by telephone companies. Universal Service and 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 services 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. 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 division. AT&T inventions included touch-tone service, integrated circuits, and laser technologies. 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 Sprint and MCI (now part of Verizon) made it untenable for AT&T to continue charging high fees for its own long- distance calling. Gradually, AT&T lowered its long- www.TechnicalPDF.com 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. Decreasing ICC Payments for Connecting Traff