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To: Secret_Agent_Man who wrote (6092)	11/25/1999 11:44:00 AM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Bell Atlantic accuses of DSL discrimination This story appeared on Network World Fusion at nwfusion.com. House panel chairman accuses Bell Atlantic of DSL discrimination By David Rohde Network World Fusion, 11/24/99 House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley Tuesday aired accusations that Bell Atlantic is discriminating against competitors when they try to provision digital subscriber line service to customers. In a letter to Bell Atlantic CEO Ivan Seidenberg, Bliley said his committee has received documents indicating that Bell Atlantic has sometimes refused to provide local loops to DSL carriers on the grounds that the end user is too far from a central office, then turned around and provided its own "comparable retail broadband service" to the same users. Bliley also said he has documents indicating that Bell Atlantic has sometimes sought to charge DSL carriers "thousands of dollars" for line conditioning, yet has performed the same work free of charge to users if they buy Bell Atlantic's own DSL or ISDN service. It was not immediately clear which DSL competitors provided the documents containing the charges, or how often the incidents have occurred. Bell companies and other incumbent local exchange carriers have often been accused of much the opposite - refusing to provide even their own DSL service, or charging users exorbitant fees, if they require line conditioning in advance. Bliley's letter asks Seidenberg to give the Commerce Committee any internal cost studies and service records that would relate to the accusations. He demanded Bell Atlantic's response by Thursday, Dec. 2. A Bell Atlantic spokeswoman says that at the moment the company doesn't have any idea where the accusations are coming from. But she says that Bell Atlantic is confident that it can fully address the concerns. The documents are part of a broad investigation by the Commerce Committee on provisioning broadband services as part of a search to identify "the remaining barriers to telecommunications competition," Bliley wrote Seidenberg. Bliley [R-Va.] also hinted that the findings could affect Bell Atlantic's current application to enter the long-distance market in New York State. He notes that a recent test of Bell Atlantic's local-ordering system in New York by KPMG did not include DSL orders, and says the accusations "raise serious concern regarding Bell Atlantic's compliance with the Telecommunications Act of 1996." The Federal Communications Commission is required to rule on Bell Atlantic's long-distance application by Dec. 28. All contents of Network World Fusion are copyright 1995-1999 by Network World, Inc., Framingham, MA 01701.