The FCC has given the thumbs up for the mergers of Verizon with MCI and SBC with AT&T. The Commission also adopted in the Order as enforceable conditions certain voluntary commitments made by the applicants.
Two of interest are:
15. The applicants committed, for a period of three years, to maintain settlement-free peering arrangements with at least as many providers of Internet backbone services as they did in combination on the Merger Closing Dates.
19. The applicants committed for a period of two years to conduct business in a way that comports with the Commission’s Internet policy statement issued in September.
That should go some way to assuring concerns of walled gardens in terms of what applications users can access and use as well as competition in backbone markets.
