Telecom Act at 30: How deregulation reshaped telecommunications

February 8, 2026, marked 30 years since the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the first major overhaul of U.S. communications law since 1934. Designed to deregulate the industry and open markets to competition, the legislation aimed to break up entrenched monopolies and lower costs for consumers. For MetTel, the anniversary is more than just symbolic. The company’s origins are directly tied to the law’s creation. “We are a byproduct of the Telecom Act,” said Andoni Economou, COO of MetTel. One of the company’s co-founders saw the legislation coming and “kind of said, let’s participate in this. It sounds like a very big event in a very big industry.” At the time, the market structure was straightforward but highly concentrated. “It was all just local monopolies and two or three long distance providers,” he said. The Telecom Act sought to change that by allowing long-distance carriers to enter local markets—and vice versa—while creating new pathways for competitive entrants.