Law Commons^™

Antitrust Review Of The At&T/Tmobile Transaction, Allen P. Grunes, Maurice E. Stucke

Federal Communications Law Journal

In August 2011, the United States brought a landmark antitrust lawsuit to prevent the merger of two of the nation's four largest mobile wireless telecommunications services providers, AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA, Inc. But why are so many elected officials asking the Obama administration to intercede in the Department of Justice's lawsuit to force a settlement? Why are they approving a merger that would likely lead to higher prices, fewer jobs, less innovation, and higher taxes for their constituents? Does it have anything to do with the money they are receiving from AT&T and T-Mobile? This Article examines the recent …

The Enduring Lessons Of The Breakup Of At&T: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective, Christopher S. Yoo

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 Decline And Fall Of At&T: A Personal Recollection, Richard A. Posner

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.

In his luncheon talk at the conference, presented here in slightly revised form, Judge Posner discusses his personal involvement with the events that led up the Justice Department's major antitrust suit against AT&T that culminated in the breakup of the telephone monopoly. The stages of his involvement included participation in the work of President Johnson's Task Force on Communications Policy, consulting for AT&T in the lawsuit itself, and his negative advice to the chairman of …

An Oligopoly Analysis Of At&T'S Performance In The Wireline Long- Distance Markets After Divestiture, Paul W. Macavoy

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 antitrust law books promise competition from breaking up the monopoly firm in a Sherman Act case remedy. Not in this case; the question is what "kind" of oligopoly.

The At&T Consent Decree: In Praise Of Interconnection Only, Richard A. Epstein

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.

This article examines the consequences of the Bell consent decree of 1982. In the short run, the decree sought to end the AT&T's Corporate domination of the telecommunications network. But it did so in an overambitious way that chose to break up the basic system into constituent parts even though the preferred remedy was a more modest initiative that would have opened the network up to interconnection by rival carriers. In charting the wrong path, …

Competition Versus Regulation: "Mediating Between Right And Right'* In The Wireless And Wireline Telephone Industries, Benjamin Douglas Arden

Federal Communications Law Journal

The wireline telephone industry in the United States is the most complete and sophisticated system in the world, built under 100 years of strict government regulation. While the wireline telephone industry was built under a scheme emphasizing regulatory control, the infancy of the wireless telephone industry has been subject to increasing deregulation and reliance on free market forces to guide the industry's development. It has been suggested that this shift in policy reflects the acknowledged failure of strict government regulation. This Note argues that the shift in regulatory policy reflects a difference in circumstances between the development of the wireless …

Cap-Sized: How The Promise Of The Price Cap Voyage To Competition Was Lost In A Sea Of Good Intentions, Gregory J. Vogt

Federal Communications Law Journal

This Article explores the Federal Communication Commission’s efforts to regulate into being marketplace economic forces through price cap regulation. A comprehensive analysis of the history and policies behind price cap regulation of LECs offers guidance for the future. Ultimately, while progress towards local exchange competition has been made, certain important adjustments should be implemented to allow price caps to achieve their full potential. These changes, consistent with the original theory of price caps, will in turn help speed the transition to competition.