BellSouth First Regional Bell to Offer 'Local Toll' Dialing Parity Region-Wide
February 16, 1999
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/As further proof its
markets are open to competition, BellSouth
(NYSE: BLS) customers region-wide now have
the option of using any telephone company for
" short-haul" toll calls using one-plus dialing.
The ability of customers to switch phone
companies for such in-state toll calls has been
a goal since the Telecommunications Act was
signed three years ago. The idea is to give
customers who switch to competing
long-distance companies the ability to make
such calls by dialing a "1," plus the number,
just as customers of BellSouth can do.
BellSouth revealed its implementation of
toll-dialing parity in a letter to the Federal
Communications Commission on Monday,
February 8, 1999, the third anniversary of the
Act.
"BellSouth is proud to be the first regional Bell
to implement this service regionwide," said
Margaret Greene, BellSouth's group president,
regulatory and external affairs. "It shows we
have opened all our markets to competition.
We hope it helps convince the FCC we should
be let into the long-distance market currently
dominated by AT&T, MCI and Sprint."
BellSouth is the first regional Bell company to
implement such "intraLATA toll dialing parity"
throughout its region, which in BellSouth's case
covers nine southeastern states. These calls,
which until recently have been handled
primarily by incumbent telephone companies,
are short-haul long-distance calls that stay
within artificial "Local Access and Transport
Areas," or LATAs. Bell operating companies are
prohibited from sending calls between LATAs
without FCC approval, which to date has not
been granted.
Under the supervision of state regulators,
BellSouth recently came to agreements with
long-distance companies and competing local
exchange companies to implement intraLATA
toll dialing parity in Alabama, South Carolina
and Tennessee. It also began implementing the
service February 8 in Louisiana, Mississippi and
North Carolina and has previously implemented
intraLATA toll dialing parity in Florida, Georgia,
and Kentucky.
BellSouth is a $23 billion communications
services company. It provides
telecommunications, wireless communications,
cable and digital TV, directory advertising and
publishing, and Internet and data services to
nearly 34 million customers in 19 countries
worldwide. |
