"We are setting the stage for the great final battle," said Blair Levin, a regulatory analyst at Legg Mason and former senior official at the commission.

"AT&T won the battle but lost the war," said Scott Cleland, a regulatory analyst with the Legg Mason Precursor Group, a Washington-based market research firm.

Blair Levin, a regulatory analyst with Legg Mason, a financial consulting firm in Washington, said the offers were unlikely to inspire many deals.

Ed Quiroz, a regulatory analyst with the California Public Utilities Commission, said a typical commercial office building consumes 10 to 15 watts a square foot.

According to radio host Hugh Hewitt, he was one the great economic historians and regulatory analysts of the last 50 years.

The bride, 26, is a regulatory analyst at the New York office of Union Bank of Switzerland.

The Supreme Court's decision to hear the case surprised many lawyers and regulatory analysts, as well as some government officials, who had predicted the justices would reject the F.C.C.'s appeal.

"This is only the starting point," said Blair Levin, a former top telecommunications official in the Clinton administration who is now a regulatory analyst at Legg Mason.

The average payback is 14 years, said Polly N. Shaw, a senior regulatory analyst with the California Public Utilities Commission.

He could've had a hundred lawyers if he wanted ex-Senators, lobbyists, and regulatory analysts, the usual D.C. lineup.