Are you saying that if any part of a network touches US soil it can be regulated by the US govt over the entirety of the network? For my part, this is not an attempt to change the subject or divert the argument (red herring). It is a valid question with operational impact.
That's not how companies work. What you see as a single company operating a single worldwide network, is actually a web of companies with interlocking directorships and share structures. In each country they will probably have 3 or 4 corporate entities. One owns the network assets, one employs all the people in Sales, another employs the network ops people, and 4th one mops up the other employees and is a holding company for the other three. None of them do any billing because that is all done by subsidiary companies in Luxembourg and Ireland. Etc, etc. This is done for a variety of reasons but regulation is definitely one of them. In most countries you need a licence to operate telecom networks, and the licence holder will be the local operating company, not the head office company that consolidates the ownership underneath a share symbol traded on your favorite stock exchange. Spend some time hanging out with finance and legal people in a big company. You may find it almost as fascinating as designing networks. An additional point is that when one company acquires another and it gets reviewed for potential antitrust issues, this often impacts the company structure because a local regulator wants to see that the local corporate entity is not 100% controlled by a foreign corporation. This makes it easier for the government to target regulations at the domestic entity. --Michael Dillon