There is much excitement in the information sciences about the imminent deployment of a nationwide information superhighway. However, there remain many obstacles to the development of the infrastructure to support the superhighway, not the least of which is the hodgepodge of regulations administered by state utility commissions and other regulatory agencies. This paper compares state telecommunications regulatory policies and their potential impacts on the development of the physical infrastructure to support an information superhighway. The paper also examines the possibility of federal intervention into state policymaking where there is resistance to formulating policies consistent with the federal administration's goal of information infrastructure development. Finally, using government and private industry data, an estimation of the direct impacts of infrastructure construction to support a nationwide information superhighway is calculated including direct spending, the creation of construction-related jobs and other potential social impacts. The findings indicate that state regulatory policies will have an impact on the speed and cost of infrastructure development. However, court rulings have limited the likelihood of federal intervention into state agencies who remain intractable. For the United States, the construction of a fiber optic telecommunications network will represent direct spending of more than $400 billion and create more than one million direct and indirect temporary jobs. The paper concludes with a call for additional study on the social and economic impacts of a telecommunications superhighway.
