NorthPoint Says Bell Atlantic Long
Distance Approval Signals Pro-Competitive Trends
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today approved Bell Atlantic's application to offer long- distance services to its New York customers, the first such approval since the passage of the landmark 1996 Telecommunications Act.
The following statement may be attributed to Steven Gorosh, vice president and general counsel of NorthPoint Communications:
"The FCC's approval of Bell Atlantic's long distance bid in New York reflects the progress the company has made in opening the local market to competitors and meeting the requirements of the Telecommunications Act.Bell Atlantic-New York has worked diligently with NorthPoint to ensure that it can deliver competitive high-speed, always-on Internet access services to thousands of New York businesses and consumers. BellAtlantic has improved, and continues to improve, its performance in compliance with the requirements of the Act. We expect further progress in 2000 based on federal and state requirements that continue to ensure open markets into the future.
"We are particularly pleased with Bell Atlantic's decision to immediately create a separate subsidiary for the delivery of advanced services, including digital subscriber line (DSL) services. The advanced services affiliate, pioneered by NorthPoint and recently adopted by SBC/Ameritech in its 13-state region, creates a structural safeguard to ensure that incumbent phone monopolies comply with the Act and offer non- discriminatory treatment of competitive service providers. "We have long anticipated the entry of the incumbent local exchange carriers, like Bell Atlantic, into the long distance market. We welcome such approvals, combined as in this case with sufficient safeguards to ensure broadband choices for small-business and residential consumers. The Act's requirements are an ongoing commitment that will be vigilantly enforced as we move toward an increasingly open and deregulated environment that fosters increased value and better communications services for all We know that Bell Atlantic, the FCC and the New York Public Service Commission are deeply committed to continually improving compliance and performance by Bell Atlantic in the coming years."
About NorthPoint
NorthPoint Communications, based in San Francisco, is a broadband communications services leader, providing affordable, dedicated high-speed Internet access over existing phone lines using digital subscriber line (DSL) technology. The company currently operates DSL-based local networks in 33 major markets, spanning 60 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), and expects to reach over 60 markets and 110 MSAs by the end of 2000. By that time, NorthPoint's DSL network
will pass nearly 45 percent of homes and more than half of all businesses in the U.S. NorthPoint provides DSL-based Internet access service -- at speeds up to 1.5 Mbps, more than 25 times faster
than common dial-up modems -- through national and regional Internet Service Providers, CLECs, long distance carriers, value-added resellers and other partners. For additional information, visit
www.northpointdsl.com.
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