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

摘要

On October 27, 2005, DOJ approved the SBC/AT&T and Verizon/MCI mergers. On October 31, 2005, FCC authorized them. In these consent degrees, DOJ conditioned the divestiture of some special access connections to some buildings in these RBOCs' in-religion territories. In addition, FCC accepted voluntary, enforceable commitments made by the applicants as merger conditions. These decisions altered the competitive framework of the U.S. telecommunications industry since 1984, when former AT&T Corporation was divested. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 succeeded to the framework, and hypothesized that the PSTN continues to be the unrivaled infrastructure for the industry. Nevertheless, the rise of the IP-based networks has outdated it. FCC tried to modify the framework to accommodate to the Internet age. However, these adjustments also caused asymmetric regulations, which have caused a great number 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 the future.%インターネット通信の発展、特に、近時のブロードバンド・サービスの普及は、アメリカ合衆国の1996年電気通信法の起草者による想定とは必ずしも一致しない形で、情報通信産業に多大な影響を与えてきた。本稿は、近時の情報通信市場における大幅な競争環境の変化がもたらした、地域Bell電話会社と大規模な長距離通信事業者との合併である、SBC Communications Inc.