Syllabus: Telecommunications Law and Policy
Professor: Peter M. Shane

Class Preparation
Readings should be prepared according to the schedule below. I have tried to pace the volume of reading evenly so as not to discourage in-depth analysis of the materials assigned. Please do not assume, unless I make an announcement to this effect, that our failure to cover an assignment completely in the session designated should delay your preparation of any subsequent assignment. Also, if, in covering those points that I think are important or especially difficult, I should neglect some point of interest to you, please feel free to raise your question in class or after.

Student Attendance and Evaluation
In order to receive course credit, a student must exhibit regular attendance, complete two written assignments during the semester, and take the final examination to be scheduled between December 14 and 19. Sixty per cent of each student's grade will be based upon the final examination. The assessment of the two writing assignments will count twenty per cent each towards the final grade.

The instructor reserves the right to lower the grade on a written assignment by one full grade for each day the assignment is late without excuse obtained no later than 48 hours in advance of the deadline involved.

A student who is absent on more than three occasions without an excuse obtained prior to noon on the day of the class or because of an unforeseeable emergency may be downgraded for the course by a full grade. (The allowance of three "free" absences includes absences during the drop/add period.) Serious personal illness, a death or medical emergency in the immediate family, religious holidays on which class attendance would violate a student's sincerely held religious beliefs; and similarly serious conflicts that are the result of emergencies, unforeseen circumstances, or non-reschedulable events will be grounds for an excused absence. In no event will a student who misses more than eight classes for any reason be allowed to receive course credit.

A student who is discovered to have committed plagiarism in the submission of a written assignment shall be required to submit a satisfactory paper, but shall be given a failing grade for that assignment.

The required texts are:
Thomas Krattenmaker, Telecommunications Law and Policy (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2nd ed. 1998)
Reed E. Hundt, You Say Yuo Want A Revolution: A Story of Information Age Politics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000).

Class	Topic	Readings
1	Introduction to the FCC and to the Federal Administrative Law System	1-24
2	Introduction to the Home Video Programming Industry and Wireless Communications	24-43
3	How should portions of the electromagnetic spectrum be assigned to different uses?	43-62 In the Matter of Principles for Reallocation of Spectrum to Encourage the Development of Telecommunications Technologies for the New Millennium
4	Case Study: PCS	75-83
5	How should broadcast frequencies be assigned to particular users in the first instance? Licensing	85-101
6	Lotteries, Auctions, and other reforms	130-141 "Changes in FCC Lottery and Auction Authority" In the Matter of Creation of Low Power Radio Service FCC: All About Auctions, pp. 1-3
7	Under what circumstances should broadcast licenses be renewed?	114-128 142-146 737-738 [47 U.S.C. §309 (k) ]
8	Public interest obligations of broadcasters Coverage of candidates, issues, political attacks	147-174 In re Request of ABC, Inc.
9	Children's programming	205-230
10	Other content-oriented obligations	230-266
11	Regulation to promote competition Regulating network relations with their affiliates	266-288
12	Regulating network relations with their suppliers	Marc L. Herskovitz, The Repeal of the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules: The Demise of Program Diversity and Television Network Competition? 15 CARDOZO ARTS & ENT. L. J. 177-212 (1997).
13	Multiple ownership restrictions	1998 Biennial Regulatory Review, 1-96
14	Public Policy Case Study: High Definition Television	321-339
15	Telephone Regulation Before the Break-Up of AT&T	341-373
16	Breakup of AT&T	375-410
17	Post-Divestiture Issues Prices and Price-Caps	411-427
18	Interconnecting Local Competition	427-437 AT&T v. Iowa Utilities Board
19	Local carrier entry into long distance service	439-449 SBC Communications v. FCC
20	Universal service	463-480
21	Cable Regulation Early regulation to 1992	509-536
22	Broadcast-cable relationships: syndicated exclusivity and retransmission consent requirements	537-555
23	"Must-carry" rules for local broadcasts	Turner Broadcasting System v. FCC [Turner II]
24	Compulsory access Franchising	597-604 AT&T v. City of Portland
25	Controls on ownership	637-654 Time Warner v. FCC1998 Biennial Regulatory Review, 97-109
26	Regulation of program supply contracts	654-669
27	Rate regulation	669-688 337-344
28	Telephone company provision of cable service	City of Dallas v. FCC