The Computer Inquiries

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission Computer Inquiries were a trio of interrelated FCC Inquiries focused on problems posed by the convergence of regulated telephony with unregulated computing services. These Computer Inquiries created rules and requirements designed to prevent cross subsidization, discrimination, and anti-competitive behavior from companies such as Bell Operating Companies (BOCs) to enter the enhanced services market.

In the 1960s, The Federal Communications Commission ("FCC" or "Commission") awoke to the reality of powerful computers running communications networks, and communications networks over which humans interacted with really powerful computers. In 1966, the FCC was interested in the difference between computers that facilitate communications and computers with which people communicate. The Commission had to make a decision on whether both of these types of computers should be regulated as a basic phone service. "The task before the Commission was the nature and extent of the regulatory jurisdiction to be applied to data processing services; and whether, under what circumstances, and subject to what conditions or safeguards, common carriers should be permitted to engage in data processing." To answer these questions, the Commission launched the first Computer Inquiry.

In the 1960s the FCC faced a problem with existing regulated communication networks, such as AT&T who offered basic communication service. Companies such as AT&T had found a way to add computers to the ends of these existing networks by layering protocols on top of the network to achieve data processing. These enhancements if left unregulated threatened growth of these services. In 1970, the FCC made its first attempt at dividing the computer world into two categories: computers that ran communication networks and computers at the end of telephone lines that people interacted. "The division was technological, focused on computer processing, attempting to divide the difference between circuit or message switching and data processing." This division by the Commission were either called "pure communications" or "pure data processing."

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