Communications Law Commons^™

Will Access Regulation Work?, Gerald R. Faulhaber

Federal Communications Law Journal

"The Enduring Lessons of the Breakup of AT&T: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective."' Conference held at the University of Pennsylvania Law School on April 18-19, 2008.

The FCC is transitioning from a rate regulation regime to an access regime. A rate regulation regime gives all customers full access to network facilities (common carrier) at regulated rates-generally, rate base rate of return regulation. An access regime is one in which all competitors are given full access to incumbents' networks, with little or no retail rate regulation, thereby allowing competition (over incumbents' networks) to discipline the market. Is this a good idea? Is …

Did At&T Die In Vain? An Empirical Comparison Of At&T And Bell Canada, Eli M. Noam

Federal Communications Law Journal

"The Enduring Lessons of the Breakup of AT&T: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective."' Conference held at the University of Pennsylvania Law School on April 18-19, 2008.

Did the Divestiture of AT&T achieve its purpose? It is helpful to turn to Canada, whose telecommunications industry and regulation were similar but which did not experience a divestiture. Since AT&T was split up in 1982-4, national telecom market concentration in the U.S. has bounced back to a national duopoly structure, with an HHI concentration index of 2,986, higher than for Canada's similar national duopoly with an HHI of 2,463. Local telecom wireline competition is …

The Telecommunications Economy And Regulation As Coevolving Complex Adaptive Systems: Implications For Federalism, Barbara A. Cherry

Federal Communications Law Journal

Satisfying the constraints for sustainable regulatory telecommunications policies is more challenging for regulatory regimes based on competition than monopoly. In an earlier paper, Johannes Bauer and I used complexity theory to improve our understanding of the requirements for sustainable telecommunications policies, showing that regulation has a diminishing capacity to achieve specifically desired outcomes and greater attention must be paid to the adaptability of policies and policymaking processes themselves. The present Article examines the implications of the complexity theory perspective for federalism. Federalism is a distinctive (patching) algorithm that confers system advantages for adaptability through diversity and coupling of policymaking jurisdictions-mechanisms …

No Sight Like Hindsight: The 1996 Act And The View Ten Years Later, Donna N. Lampert

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Swallows, Sausages, And The 1996 Act, Daniel B. Phythyon

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Why Stovepipe Regulation No Longer Works: An Essay On The Need For A New Market-Oriented Communications Policy, Randolph J. May

Federal Communications Law Journal

In the ten years since the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the telecommunications industry has undergone profound technological and marketplace changes. May argues that the "techno-functional constructs" of the statute regulate services based on increasingly obsolete definitions. This Article argues that those changes have undermined the "stovepipe" regulatory scheme of the 1996 Act. In an increasingly diverse and competitive marketplace, the "stovepipe" model of regulation should be left in the dustbin of history. Instead, May argues that a new market-oriented regulatory regime focusing on consumer welfare through the application of antitrust principles should form the basis of a new regulatory model.

Digital Crossroads, Kathleen Wallman

Federal Communications Law Journal

Book Review: Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age, Jonathan E. Nuechterlein & Philip J. Weiser, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 2005, 670 pages.

A review of Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age, by Jonathan E. Nuechterlein and Philip J. Weiser, MIT Press, 2005. Most practitioners of communications law are familiar with the necessity of teaching themselves enough economics, engineering, and politics to practice competently and comfortably in an area that is inherently interdisciplinary. Likewise, many professors who teach telecommunications from a variety of disciplinary perspectives are familiar with the frustration of locating a text that …

Four More Years... Of The Status Quo? How Simple Principles Can Lead Us Out Of The Regulatory Wilderness, Adam Thierer

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Comparative Analysis Of Telecommunications Regulations: Pitfalls And Opportunities, Mary Newcomer Williams

Federal Communications Law Journal

Book Review: Controlling Market Power in Telecommunications: Antitrust vs. Sector-specific Regulation by Damien Geradin and Michel Kerf.

In this 2003 publication, the authors comprehensively review and analyze the telecommunications regulatory structure of five nations that have achieved some success in promoting competition in telecommunications markets. The authors engage in this analysis in order to evaluate the use of telecommunications sector-specific regulation versus more general, economywide antitrust regulation to accomplish specific goals related to promoting competition and efficiency in the provision of telecommunications services. This review describes the authors’ analysis and highlights its strengths and limitations. It also offers a few …

Shifting Foundations: The Regulation Of Telecommunications In An Era Of Change, Andrew C. Barrett

Federal Communications Law Journal

The recent developments in the telecommunications industry represent to many the birth of the multimedia world of the future that will make available new interactive services, computer and voice applications, and programming choices. The advancements with wireless technology may also make personal communications services (PCS) a major competitor with the local telephone industry. The ramifications of these developments will depend heavily on the regulatory directions that the government selects. The Author, as Commissioner of the FCC, begins his discussion by analyzing the recent business mergers and the motivations behind them. He then reviews the 1992 Cable Act, suggesting that while …