ABSTRACT
Currently, Germany and the United States are taking steps to liberalize and introduce more competition to their respective telecommunications markets. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the state commissions are in the process of implementing the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act). In Germany, the federal government has enacted a new telecommunications law, the Telekommanikation Gesetz (TKG). In both countries, these legislative developments are intended to create the regulatory framework that will make a fully liberalized market possible. For both, this entails establishing a frame-work that will introduce competition to markets where monopoly providers have control of essential bottleneck facilities. In Germany, competition is being introduced for the first time in all segments of the market. In the United States, competition already exists in some segments. However, regulators and competitors are facing similar issues in trying to level the playing field in what has traditionally been a monopoly environment.
