e. What comes out of the phone is still the same voice that has always come out of the phone. And while VoIP today enjoys a certain amount of immunity from regulatory forbearance, that is a temporary situation. The time will come, and not all that long from now, when VoIP providers will reach "critical mass" and will find themselves under the same degree of regulatory scrutiny as other, more traditional, providers. I have now finished writing this chapter; it is 11:15 PM eastern time on December 30, 2004, and I am sure that it is already woefully out of date. Readers, let me leave you with this: Regulation is a complex, often bor- ing, difficult subject to become engaged with. It is, however, one of the most critical subjects going in telecom today, SO if you have skillfully avoided it, now is the time that changes. If you are to be informed about the current goings-on in telecom and the industries it serves, you must be able to discuss the status of current regulation. Chapter 4 Questions What are the primary goals of telecom regulation? How would you compare the Communications Act of 1934 with the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (TA96)? How did the ILECs basically control the regulatory process when it came to the introduction of new services and technologies? What are the 14 requirements under TA96 that the ILECs were required to meet as a prerequisite for entry into long distance? Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. Premises Technologies Premises Technologies Chapter 5 This chapter addresses the network devices found in a typical premises environment including computers, wired and wireless local area net- works, and a number of other options. We begin with an examination of a typical computer. In one way or another, the computer is the ultimate premises technology device; it appears, in one form or another, in every device use