FCC says local phone lines served by rivals doubled
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By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications
Commission said in Monday rivals to local telephone giants like
Verizon Communications and SBC Communications Inc.
served almost double the number of local lines in 2000
than they did in the previous year.
Competitive local carriers like XO Communications Inc.
and Allegiance Telecom Inc. serve about 16.4
million, or 8.5 percent, of the approximately 194 million local
telephone lines in the United States, up from 8.3 million lines
in 1999, according to the FCC's semi-annual report.
The report showed the rival local carriers were gaining the
most new local market share in states where the dominant
telephone companies had received approval to sell long-distance
service.
Verizon, SBC, BellSouth , and Qwest Communications
-- known as baby Bells born from the 1984 break-up of
AT&T Corp. -- must first prove to state and federal
regulators that they have opened their networks to competition
for voice and data services before offering long-distance.
SBC, the nation's No. 2 local carrier, has won
long-distance approval in Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma while the
largest local carrier in the United States Verizon has won
permission in New York and Massachusetts.
"Our local markets are fully open and competitors are
successfully winning customers and increasing their market
share," said Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, senior vice president for
SBC.
The new data comes as the dominant carriers are lobbying
Congress to pass legislation that would eliminate requirements
that they prove their local networks are open to competition
before being able to offer long-distance data services.
In New York, for example, rivals had about 2.8 million
lines in 2000, about 20 percent of the market, up from 1.2
million lines the prior year, according to the FCC report.
A majority of the competition is for the business customer,
with 60 percentof the so-called competitive local exchange
carriers (CLECs) customers being medium or large businesses,
institutional or government customers, the FCC said.
CLECs served about 4.6 percent of the residential and small
business market in 2000, double from the year ago period,
according to the regulatory agency.
"I am not gratified by 4 percent of residential lines open
to competition in this country," said Robert Lopardo, vice
president of federal advocacy at WorldCom Inc.
"What I think the statistics today indicate is a call to
action from the states and the FCC itself for strict
enforcement of the Telecom Act to eliminate the Bell monopoly
over residential phone service in this country," he said.
About 6.8 million of the lines were ones resold by the
dominant carriers versus their own facilities-based telephone
lines in 2000, the report said. That's up from 5.7 million in
the prior year.
AT&T, which offers local service in Texas and New York,
said the growth in number of lines served by competitors was
declining, noting that rivals added 4.4 million lines during
the first half of 2000 and 3.7 million during the second half.
"We think the numbers continue to confirm that the Bells
have an overwhelming grip on the local residential market,"
said AT&T spokeswoman Claudia Jones. "When you look at the
number served by CLECs, it's still a small number of
customers."
REUTERS
Rtr 17:37 05-21-01 |
