U.S. Tightens Grip on Telecom

The Wall Street Journal (online registration required): The U.S. government has used the merger-approval process to increase its influence over the telecom industry, bringing more companies under its oversight and gaining a say over activities as fundamental as equipment purchases.

The leverage has come from a series of increasingly restrictive security agreements between telecom companies and national-security agencies that are designed to head off threats to strategically significant networks and maintain the government's ability to monitor communications, according to a review of the public documents and lawyers who have negotiated the agreements.

Read article