Common carrier >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search
A common carrier is an organization that transports a product or service using its facilities, or those of other carriers, and offers its services to the general public. Traditionally common carrier means a business that transports people or physical goods. In the 20th century, the term came to refer also to utilities (those transporting some service such as communications or public utilities). The term differs from private carrier, which operates solely for the benefit of one entity and does not offer services to the general public. A property common carrier is an organization (often a commercial or private business but sometimes a government agency) that provides transportation of persons or goods, often over a definite route according to a regular schedule, making its services available to all who choose to employ them. Airlines, railroads, bus lines, cruise ships and trucking companies are examples of property common carriers. Post offices would also be considered common carriers but as universally they are operated by governments they are often treated differently than commercial organizations, such as given special privileges. Common carriers generally exist under a different regulatory regime than specialised carriers, are subject to different laws, and sometimes to different treatment in other ways (e.g. taxation). For example, common carriers generally explicitly have no legal liability for the contents of freight shipped through them unless the customer has purchased excess insurance for that purpose. A public utility is an organization that holds itself out to the public for hire to provide utility services, such as communication by radio like cellular telephone and satellite television; telecommunication by wire such as telephone, cable tv and the Internet; transmission by physical connection of supplies such as electricity, natural gas, water and sewer services, etc. With the deregulation of public utilities it may also be used in relation to a common carrier company that provides the final transmission link to consumers' homes or businesses, but consumers can buy their gas or electricity from any of a number of supplier companies, all of whom feed power into the common transmission line (see electricity retailing). [edit] Telecommunications In the telecommunications regulation context in the United States, common carriers are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission under title II of the Communications Act. Networks not regulated as common carriers are referred to as Information Services or Enhanced Services, and are generally regulated under title I of the Communications Act. Internet Service Providers generally wish to avoid being classified as a "common carrier" and, so far, have managed to do so. Before 1996, such classification could be helpful in defending a monopolistic position, but the main focus of policy has been on competition, so "common carrier" status has little value for ISPs, while carrying obligations they would rather avoid. The key FCC Order on this point is: IN RE FEDERAL-STATE JOINT BOARD ON UNIVERSAL SERVICE, 13 FCC Rcd. 11501 (1998), which holds that ISP service (both "retail" and backbone) is an "information service" (not subject to common carrier obligations) rather than a "telecommunications service" (which might be classified as "common carriage"). [edit] On Mon, 2006-03-20 at 22:23, Ruben Safir wrote: > On Mon, 2006-03-20 at 11:04, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > On Mon, 20 Mar 2006, Ruben Safir wrote: > > > > > Clearly you depend on Verizon for access to your customer base. Clearly > > > Verizon is a Common Carrier and Clearly YOU become a Common Carrier once > > > someone purchases service from you. > > > > > > When you become a Commmon Carrier, the public has every right to expect > > > unobstructive, and regulated business practices. > > You have an interesting definition of common carrier. > > > A common carrier, as it always has been, is anyone who provides public > infrastructure and services for a necessary resource of commerce and > communications. > > I suggest you turn your history book back to its origins in the 18th and > 17th century. > > Ruben > > -- > NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ > Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ > Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/ -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
