United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-10-12 monographic deposited born digital 73 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-93 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-93 P0b002ee180373134 f:d0193 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-93 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-93 GAO-01-93 Telecommunication Computer networks Telecommunication industry Competition Telephone Internet Letter Report

As the Internet becomes a growing force in daily life, the degree of consumer choice among Internet providers has emerged as a key public policy issue. Because laws and regulations devised to govern these different networks were generally tailored to the specific services each network originally supported, different types of communications providers are held to different rules when providing physical transport to the Internet. As a result of both technology and regulation, consumers using the telephone network as a means of physical transport to the Internet may have a choice of transport provider and generally have significant choice of Internet service provider (ISP). Consumers generally have broad access to Internet portals, applications, and content, either from their ISP or directly from the Internet itself, regardless of the transport provider or ISP they have chosen. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-93/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-93.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-93/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-93.pdf GAO-01-93 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-93 Letter Report GAO-01-93; Telecommunications: Technological and Regulatory Factors; Telecommunication Computer networks Telecommunication industry Competition Telephone Internet Title 47 Section 532 47 U.S.C. 532