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I. INTRODUCTION: THE WIRELESS ROAD LESS TRAVELED--TWO ROADS DIVERGED A. Once Again, Whither Wireless? B. Charting a Federal Course for CMRS--The FCC as Wilderness Guide II. WIRELESS LANDSCAPE IMPROVEMENTS--1998-2003 III. [...], In this timely follow-up piece to a 1998 piece entitled A Federal Regulatory Framework that is 'Hog Tight, Horse High, and Bull Strong,' the Authors of this Article revisit the progress of American commercial mobile radio services ('CMRS') proliferation and regulation. The piece expresses the concern that balkanization has continued to plague wireless regulation in the United States, as misguided legal analyses and state regulation further hinder wireless development across the nation. While the European Union has witnessed unprecedented growth in this sector, conflicting court and FCC decisions and continued federal, state, and local burdens on CMRS have placed hurdles throughout the process of efficient U.S. wireless technology adoption in many fundamental areas. Challenges such as consumer protection, convergence, and the optimization of competition have further complicated the CMRS regulatory scene. The Authors conclude that in order to promote a healthy wireless communications industry in the United States in the future, obstacles to sustainable competition, regulatory predictability, limited taxation, and facilitated investment must soon be overcome.

I. Introduction Competition policy with regard to vertical restraints has been guided by the jurisdiction of the United States, and more recently, the European Union as well. As to the [...]

I. INTRODUCTION II. OVERVIEW OF THE RELEVANT ANTITRUST LAWS A. The Sherman Act 1. Discussion of the Rule of Reason 2. Application of the Per Se Rule B. The Clayton [...]

For too long, musicians have had too little voice in the manufacture, distribution and promotion of their music and too little means to extract fair support and compensation for their [...]

By Bruce Sullivan, bsullivan@phillips.com Appearing at his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, Attorney Generaldesignate John Ashcroft stressed the importance of corporate competition, and said that, as head of the Justice Department, […]

In analyzing the competitive impacts of bank consolidations, banking agencies and the U.S. Department of Justice tend to rely on the assumption that the market for bank services is local and is for services offered only by banks. This approach allows analysts to merge all products and services into a 'cluster of services' for analysis of competition. Increases in types and locations of competitors have cast doubt on whether a cluster of services exists, however. These changes have induced the U.S. Department of Justice to do separate analyses of small business lending when analyzing consolidations. This article compares measures of market concentration across deposit and small business loan products to answer two questions crucial for antitrust analysis: Are small business lending markets local, and are deposits an adequate proxy for small business loans? For their analysis, the authors use new information provided by Community Reinvestment Act data, which give a broader picture of out-of-market participation in a local small business lending market and therefore an indication of the degree of competitive pressure applied by these institutions. The findings indicate that the convenience of local offices can be overcome at least partly by distant lenders offering, for example, better rates, greater access to credit, or more flexible products or hours of service. The authors conclude that, while additional research is needed, using multiple measures of market concentration is likely to give a truer picture of competition, especially in marginal cases., IN ANALYZING THE COMPETITIVE IMPACTS OF BANK CONSOLIDATIONS, BANKING AGENCIES AND THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HAVE TENDED TO RELY ON THREE BASIC NOTIONS: THE MARKET FOR BANK PRODUCTS IS [...]

What the Supreme Court thinks about handicapping the incumbent to level the field for new players. REGULATORS TODAY SIT ON THE HORNS OF A DILEMMA: How far to level the [...]

It's hard to see' how anyone benefits from the record-setting, $129 billion merger of MCI WorldCom and Sprint other than Sprint shareholders and MCI's senior management. The move combines the [...]

When Part II of the Federal Power Act was enacted in 1935, electric power was sold, almost exclusively, as a bundled product by vertically-integrated utilities (VIUs). Competition was virtually non-existent. [...]

New York It now appears certain that the third anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 will come and go in February with no regional Bell operating company authorized to […]

When Arizona resident Kathryn L. Haycock - a dental hygienist and mother of four - decided to start her own long-distance company in 1985 to compete against Mountain Bell, she […]