What Is The Recent Development In Antitrust Policy?
The most important antitrust case of recent years involved one giant firm in two vitally important industries, telecommunications and computers. A review of the three cases reveals the flavour of modern thinking bout antitrust policy. The AT&T case. Until 1983 AT&T has a virtual monopoly on the telecommunications market. It handled more than 95 percent of all long distance calls, provided 85 percent of all local lines, and sold most of the nation’s telephone equipment. The complex of companies owned by T&T often called the Bell System included Bell telephone labs, Western Electric Company, and 23 Bell operating companies. The dismantling of the Bell System set off a breathtaking revolution in the telecommunications industry. Today telephone companies are free to buy equipment from anyone and are entering joint ventures in the cellular telephone, cable television, data service and Internet provisions, as well as traditional telephone service. More significant is the explosion of the new
