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To: Softechie who wrote (1016)	4/2/2001 12:17:07 PM
From: Softechie	Respond to of 2155

DJ AT&T, Verizon Present Varying Views On Local Competition 27 Mar 18:38 HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)--They were under orders to play nice, and so they did. But lawyers for AT&T Corp. (T) and Verizon Communications (VZ) managed to give the audience at a statewide utility conference two very conflicting viewpoints Tuesday on the status of local telephone competition in Pennsylvania. "We are a far cry from seeing the kind of competition we have in the long distance market," said Alan Kohler, an attorney for AT&T, the nation's largest long distance carrier. "The status of local competition in Pennsylvania, we believe, is very good," countered Daniel Monagle, regulatory counsel for Verizon, the dominant local telephone company in Pennsylvania. The responses, given during a panel discussion at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission's annual conference, underscore the differences between the two telephone giants as they battle over the future of local telephone service in the state. The three-day series of seminars, held at a hotel on the outskirts of Harrisburg, began Monday and comes on the heels of the PUC's decision not to require Verizon to split into separate wholesale and retail affiliates in Pennsylvania. The PUC once embraced the breakup proposal as the best means of spurring competition between Verizon and other companies seeking to provide local telephone service in the state. But last week, the commission changed course, permitting Verizon to remain intact in Pennsylvania if it agrees to a strict code of conduct to ensure it doesn't discriminate against competitors. The decision pleased Verizon, which fought the proposal before the commission, in the courts, and in the media. It dissatisfied competitors such as AT&T, which had lobbied hard in favor of the split. Mindful of the rivalry, the moderator of the telephone competition seminar Tuesday asked Kohler, Monagle, and the panel'sother participants to remain cordial and focus on the panel's mission: explaining the evolution of local telephone competition in Pennsylvania. "Why is it that when people go home at night, they get lots of telephone calls asking them to switch their long distance companies, but few get calls asking them to switch local phone companies?" asked the moderator, Renardo Hicks, an executive with XO Communications Inc. (XOXO). His company offers local telephone service in combination with long distance, broadband and Internet access to commercial customers in parts of Pennsylvania. "Local telephone competition wasn't taken seriously until 1996, when the Federal Telecommunications Act" passed the U.S. Congress, Kohler said. "By comparison, the long distance market is much more mature." Monagle cited Verizon's loss of thousands of local telephone customers each month as proof that competition in Pennsylvania is already in full swing. After the seminar, Hicks said companies like his, which are setting up their own telecommunications infrastructure, aren't yet on equal footing with behemoths like Verizon. Asked if the PUC's decision last week would hurt or hinder his company's chances for competing in Pennsylvania, Hicks said: "It's too early to say. The critical features are the rules of the game. They will have a big impact on how competition develops," he said, noting that Verizon hasn't yet responded to the PUC's offer. Hicks said he was pleased with the tone of Tuesday's panel discussion. "I directed these guys to be nice to each other," he said. "It could have been a lot more adversarial." (END) DOW JONES NEWS 03-27-01 06:38 PM