Ever since Judge Harold Greene approved the breakup of AT&T, scholars and policymakers have debated whether it represented a policy success or a policy failure. On this panel, we will hear from people who played key roles in the AT&T litigation to learn which aspects of the breakup played out as expected and which aspects emerged as surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant.

The breakup of AT&T was a landmark in the shift away from rate regulation, which grants customers access to the entire network, toward access regulation, which grants competitors access to portions of the network. This panel will assess the success of this new regulatory paradigm, examining its workability, its impact on static and dynamic efficiency, and the extent to which it now serves as a model for other countries and other industries.

Remarks: The Hon. Richard A. Posner, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

The Microsoft antitrust case, the Verizon-MCI and SBC-AT&T mergers, and the European Commission’s review of its e-communications regulatory framework have given new importance the debate over structural separation. What lessons does the breakup of AT&T offer about the impact of structural separation, and what insights does scholarship exploring new approaches to vertical exclusion add to the debate?

The Supreme Court’s 2004 decision in Trinko called into question two of the MFJ’s central premises: (1) the propriety of invoking section 2 of the Sherman Act to mandate access to telecommunications networks and (2) that antitrust courts can play a constructive role in overseeing telecommunications industry. This panel will offer a range of views regarding how much room is left for antitrust courts after Trinko.

Commentators have long debated the efficacy of consent decrees. Some have focused on the relative merits of structural and behavioral relief. Others have suggested that consent decrees represent a way for defendants to evade liability even when they have violated the antitrust laws. Still others suggest that consent decrees allow the government to impose liability even when no antitrust violation has occurred. Other scholars have begun to study whether the choice between litigation and settlement affects substantive outcomes. This panel will use the consent decrees settling the AT&T and the Microsoft litigation as a lens to explore all sides of these debates.

The breakup of AT&T is the genesis of the debate over intercarrier compensation that now overshadows the provision of both traditional telecommunications services as well as new services, such as VoIP. This panel will explore how these compensation regimes will be shaped in the future and what impact it will have on universal service.