"The hypothesized competitive harms from the combination of AOL's internet service and Time Warner's content and broadband facilities has not materialized," he wrote.
The bill, for example, continues to provide the Bells' competitors with access to the older technologies in the Bells' networks, while taking a hands-off approach to broadband facilities that the Bells may build.
The order was necessary, the F.C.C. said in court papers, because "there were significant threats to openness, and thus to the engine that has driven investment in broadband facilities".
Incumbent phone companies certainly don't own this new market; they have no monopoly over broadband facilities.
The FCC hasn't imposed similar pricing or buildout conditions in other recent mergers involving wireline broadband facilities.
"Broadcast.com is putting multimedia on the net now to build brand identity," says Leigh, "as broadband facilities become available, it will gradually switch to those lines".
Donald Trump did on occasion reference "infrastructure," but never in the context of building new wireless broadband facilities to meet the burgeoning demand for mobile data, or in facilitating a more "connected" economy or the Internet of Things, or in strengthening the deployment of 5G and other next-wave communications technologies.
(e) Not later than January 1, 2000, an electing company's public switched network backbone interoffice facilities must employ broadband facilities capable of 45 or more megabits a second.
We are pleased that some of these conditions should accelerate the deployment of broadband facilities and adoption of broadband service throughout the 22-state region of the merged company.
A particularly important strategic goal of the TA96 was to establish regulatory policies that promote competition, innovation, and investment in broadband services and facilities.
