The majority of American businesses and people are in danger of being relegated to second-class citizenship in the information age, according to a report released by the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The report, commissioned by the US Congress, points to other nations, particularly France, as having made better progress in giving consumers access to computerised services via low-cost terminals over standard telephone lines. The report calls for Judge Harold Greene, overseeing the working out of the anti-trust consent decree that broke up the Bell System to lift restrictions on the Baby Bells and for Congress to address these policy issues. The existing regulation in the US prohibits regional telephone companies from developing information services and from manufacturing or offering low-cost viewdata terminals that subscribers could use to access electronic networks. But authors of the report conclude that the American telephone user can best be served by the local telephone companies. Current restrictions on phone companies mean that intelligent broadband networks capable of delivering new services to meet greater and different needs and wants well into the twenty-first century may be delayed in the US well beyond availability in other countries, says the report. Three major markets for information services are outlined: large businesses, small businesses, and upscale personal computer users. The last group is identified as the critical factor in the US information mass market. Business is well served through on-line databases and commercial information utilities, the report says, but the potential to develop services for the mass market is being artificially withheld due to the restrictions outlined in the terms decided at divestiture. Such a regulatory environment is chilling the future service and infrastructure developments. The report notes that although critical mass may be achieved as home computer penetration continues and the populace becomes more computer literate, it is unlikely that a US market can achieve the level of success of France’s Minitel service, which provides inexpensive or free monitors to its telephone subscribers, without development of a low-cost US terminal.
