近時のアメリカ合衆国における電気通信事業者間の大型合併をめぐる議論について ―SBC Inc.とAT&T Corporationとの合併及びVerizon Communications Inc.とMCI, Inc.との合併を中心に―

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On October 27, 2005, DOJ approved the SBC/AT&T and Verizon/MCI mergers. On October31, 2005, FCC authorized them. In these consent degrees, DOJ conditioned the divestiture ofsome special access connections to some buildings in these RBOCs’in-religion territories. Inaddition, FCC accepted voluntary, enforceable commitments made by the applicants as mergerconditions. These decisions altered the competitive framework of the U.S. telecommunicationsindustry since 1984, when former AT&T Corporation was divested. The TelecommunicationsAct of 1996 succeeded to the framework, and hypothesized that the PSTN continues to be theunrivaled infrastructure for the industry. Nevertheless, the rise of the IP-based networks hasoutdated it. FCC tried to modify the framework to accommodate to the Internet age.However, these adjustments also caused asymmetric regulations, which have caused a greatnumber of lawsuits since the AT&T Corp. v. City of Portland, 43 F. Supp. 2d 1146.Comprehensive legislation by the Congress based on the layers model is indispensable for thefuture.
2008-03-31