Each country has different telecommunications laws - or none at all.
Under the telecommunications law, the commission must complete the remaining rules for competition by May 1997.
The new pact is also being driven by big changes in nation's telecommunications laws.
A new telecommunications law allows open competition between telephone and cable companies.
One attack is from members of Congress who fear the commission will, under last year's telecommunications law, impose rules that drive up local phone rates.
And he will try to push through a sweeping revision of telecommunications law, which almost passed in the last Congress.
Cable rates have risen at three times the inflation rate since the telecommunications law was passed in early 1996, the groups said.
Much of the telecommunications law is dedicated to competition and dominant service providers.
Under the new telecommunications law, the regional Bell companies must meet a 14-point list of requirements before they can provide long-distance telephone service.
The deal, made possible be the recent overhaul of telecommunications laws, will form the nation's seventh-largest television holding company.