ts. Alternatively, a network owner can open its network services and standards to any company that provides complementary goods and services. A network is said to be modular or to exhibit an open architecture if most suppliers of complementary services can gain access to the network. Platform access has long been a part of telecommunications law. For example, the FCC standardized the interface for telephone handsets and other customer premises equipment (CPE) and required network owners to permit the intercon- nection of any CPE that met those standards (FCC 1975). 6 Platform access was mandated during the breakup of AT&T. As part of the effort to introduce compe- tition into long distance services, the court required the newly divested Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) to reconfigure their switches to provide a standardized interface accessible to any long-distance carrier.7 During its Com- puter Inquiries, the FCC also required the RBOCs to "'make available standardized hardware and software interfaces that are able to support transmission, switching, The Court of Appeals upheld this order on judicial review (N.C. Utils. Comm'n V. FCC, 552 F.2d 1036 (4th Cir. 1977). These standards were later repealed (FCC 2000a). 7 United States V. AT&T, 552 F. Supp. 131, 196, 223-34 (D.D.C. 1982), aff' mem. sub nom. Maryland V. United States, 460 U.S. 1001 (1983). As Robinson (1988) has pointed out, this aspect of the court order mandating the breakup of AT&T completed a process that was begun by the FCC. Networks in Telecommunications and signaling functions identical to those utilized in the enhanced service pro- vided by the carrier'" (FCC 1986b, p. 1039). 8 The 1996 Act similarly authorizes the FCC to work with industry standard-setting organizations to develop inter- connectivity standards to govern public telecommunications networks (47 U.S.C. § 256(b)(2)). The critical debate on platform access focuses on the Internet. The predom- inant communication standard on the Internet is known as the transfer control pro