 or access charges as traditional telephone services. These questions were left unanswered by the 1996 act, and the FCC's at- tempt to answer them has been delayed by a court reversal. 38 Conclusion The 1996 Telecommunications Act has certainly changed the telecommu- nications landscape in the United States. Entry into all telecom services has been liberalized, and local telephone companies are faced with competition for the first time in nearly a century. Unlike earlier exercises in market opening, however, the 1996 act did not advance "deregulation." Instead, it established a major new set of wholesale regulations designed to facilitate the entry of new carriers. This new regulatory regime has been extremely controversial, resulting in one legal appeal after another. As the following chapters demonstrate, it is far from clear that these new regulatory rules have advanced sustainable entry into telecommunications. Fortunately, the 1996 act did not extend a new regulatory regime into the domain of wireless telecommunications or cable television. On the con- trary, it reduced cable television (video programming) regulation while con- tinuing a policy of largely unregulated competition for wireless services. These cable and wireless companies, not the new entrants, are likely to pro- vide the most potent competition for the established telephone companies. The First Eight Years under the New Law he 1996 Telecommunications Act not only freed the Bell operating companies from the 1982 line-of-business restrictions but also exposed them to extensive local competition for the first time. Long- distance companies could now enter local markets and therefore offer inte- grated service packages to their customers. With Internet use also gathering momentum and equity markets enjoying a surge of historical proportions, the United States found itself in the middle of a seemingly unending eco- nomic boom. The Growth of Telecom: Rhetoric versus Reality A hot topic of this period was the potential of the "information super- high