Communications

In 1980, the Bell System in the United States was still a monopoly. On January 1, 1982, Judge Harold Green dissected the Bell System into Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), commonly referred to as “Baby Bells”. Bell Labs and Western Electric were also restructured (as American Bell and later renamed AT&T Consumer Products) so as not to have an unfair advantage with the Bell name. With deregulation in place, any number of companies could sell a telephone or provide long-distance service. Years later, most of the cheap $5 phones are a thing of the past. After the FCC opened up the 46-MHz band, use of cordless phones has grown significantly. The FCC has now also opened up a new 900 MHz band for cordless phones, which has extended range and less interference with radio-controlled toys than the 49 MHz band.
In the rest of the world, most countries still have a government monopoly on the phone system, though this is changing because of influence from the U.S. market. The united Kingdom is probably the most progressive non-U.S. market. Cellular phones have been terrified so inexpensively in the united kingdom that most people own cellular phones, Many U.S. companies, such as US West, have set up U.K. subsidiaries to sell cable TV and phone service at 15 percent lower rates than the local monopoly, The monopoly position does have its advantages however, For new technology to take hold in the United States, each of the RBOCs must endorse the new technology and the market must show a need. In other countries, the PTT may proclaim that a certain technology will be adopted (like integrated services Digital network (ISDN) for instance), and there is a government mandate to make it happen. For this reason, Europe is much father ahead in deploying ISDN than the united States.
In the united States, the Federal Communication commission (FCC) has a reasonable scope of influence to open doors for multimedia communications. In 1992, the FCC allocated a new frequency band at 218-219 MHz for interactive video applications. This new band will be used for a nationwide interactive TV service called TV-Answer, which is based on a radio frequency (RF) cellular-like modem. Since most cable networks today are transmit- only. This new RF channel can provide the return communications path for these new services. Home shopping is one obvious use of this technology.