BENTON：1996年《电信法》中普遍服务的承诺（英文版）

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 arrived at a pivotal moment in American communications history. For decades, universal service had meant one thing: ensuring that all Americans could access basic telephone service at affordable rates through a system of implicit cross-subsidies managed largely within the monopoly structure of AT&T and its successors. But by the mid-1990s, this model faced twin pressures. Emerging technologies—from enhanced telephone services to computer networks—created