United States

Since the adoption of the 'American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009' (The Recovery Act of 2009), which required the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the primary communications regulatory body in the US, to submit a National Broadband Plan (NBP) to Congress, the US communications regulatory debate has been dominated by discussion of how to ensure all Americans have access to broadband capability which is affordable and fully utilised. However, other technological changes have also coloured the regulatory landscape in recent years: the development of IP-enabled services, technological convergence and the impending wireless revolution. To understand the regulatory issues raised by broadband, IP-enabled services, convergence, the shift to a wireless society and the response of the US to date, it is important to understand the existing legislative and regulatory framework, how it developed and the commercial context in which the framework applies.