Wisconsin Bell, Inc. v. Bie

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

Local telephone companies such as Wisconsin Bell have a degree of monopoly power because of the cost to a competitor of duplicating the grid of telephone wires and switching equipment that constitutes a local telephone network. The competitor will find it difficult to compete unless it is interconnected with the local network. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 provides a machinery for encouraging interconnection. The competitor can require the local phone company to negotiate, in good faith, an agreement authorizing interconnection on mutually agreeable terms. If…