On the 341st flip of the calendar each year--for roughly the last six decades--we in the U.S. have commemorated the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Becoming so used to the familiar newsreels running on local news stations every Dec. 7, I admit to letting them become part of the background noise. So it wasn't until today, one week after the anniversary, I realized the background noise had stopped. There wasn't much of a commemoration this year. And so it seems as if another important day has slipped below the surface of our collective consciousness just like the USS Arizona itself slipped beneath the waves.

Telecom has its own players, its own history and set of important dates. The Telecom Act of 1996 was one of them. Yet, even this momentous date, which signified the first major re-write of the Telecom Act in 62 years and was supposed to be such a turning point in the history of telecommunications, appears to be slipping below the surface, soon to be replaced by a new Telecom Act just as Pearl Harbor--the day that would live in infamy--has been replaced by 9/11.

Sadly, these historic occasions don't always teach us what they should, or rather we too often neglect to learn from them the lessons they provide. As a result, history is used not so much as something to learn from and lead us forward, but as something merely to be re-written.

It's still unclear whether there will be an official Telecom Act of 2006, but there is a lot of clamor for one. When they get around to it, regulators and legislators should work to create a document that allows the technology to move forward in a way that improves the lives of people through innovation, not that replaces one man-made disaster with another.

A new Telecom Act, like a new tax code, should eliminate as many convoluting requirements as possible. Lawrence Lessig, professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society, last year offered six guiding principles for the Telecom Act of 2006 (should there be one.) Among them are the call for the total and final destruction of the vertical regulatory classifications such as Title II for common carriers, Title III for wireless operators and Title IV for cable, replacing them with a simple horizontal model.

Though nothing is ever simple in telecom regulation, here's another good one: abandonment of the Unbundled Network Element approach to telephony competition (already partly accomplished). He also advocated the adoption of voice-over-IP rules that don't kill VoIP. That's a good start.

It would also be good to listen to those who were there for the Telecom Act of '96. Adam Thierer, director of telecommunications studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, said to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in 2004 that they all shared a sense of frustration and disappointment that they were not able to advance the ball a little further in 1996. He said, "Congress wanted market competition but did not trust the free market enough to tell regulators to step aside and allow markets to function on their own."

Thierer said it was probably wishful thinking to believe that a century's worth of command- and-control regulatory policies could be undone in a few short years. That's probably true. So when the effort is undertaken once again, we should heed the words of former FCC Chairman Michael Powell and "build from a blank slate up as opposed to the myriad of telecommunications regulations down."

And although Texas Republican and House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton said last week regarding the success (or not) of the Telecom Act of '96 that no one could have foreseen the magnitude of the challenges and opportunities that the Internet age has presented--sounding very much like Condolezza Rice saying no one could have foreseen people using planes as missiles and flying them into buildings--he did say something more poignant: "New services shouldn't be hamstrung by old thinking and outdated regulations."

Here's to the new Telecommunications Act of 200x. Let freedom ring.

E-mail me at tmcelligott@primediabusiness.com