Deregulation Called Blow to Minorities The 1996 landmark law that was
warmly embraced by the Clinton administration and many
Republicans as a way to begin deregulating the nation's
telecommunications industry has had the unintended effect of raising
substantial new barriers for companies controlled by minorities and
women, new independent studies commissioned by the federal
government have found.
"Today small firms face barriers erected by deregulation and consolidation in both wireless and broadcast," one of
the studies said. "Minorities and women confront those same barriers; and yet those obstacles stand high atop a
persistent legacy of discrimination in the capital markets, industry, advertising and community — and prior F.C.C.
policies, which worsened the effects of discrimination."

"The barriers to entry have been raised so high that, left standing, they appear virtually insurmountable," the study
concluded. "Minority, women and small-business ownership in these industries is diminishing at such an alarming
rate that many we spoke with felt we had passed the point of no return."

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/12/business/12BARR.html