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To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (1389)	9/28/1998 7:02:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 3178

FCC nixes Qwest long distance deals with two Bells [Obtained from the QWST Thread, courtesy of Nick and Steve S.] WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Federal regulators on Monday barred regional Bell companies US West Inc.(NYSE:USW - news) and Ameritech Corp.(NYSE:AIT - news) from marketing long distance service on behalf of upstart carrier Qwest Communications International Inc.(Nasdaq:QWST - news) The Federal Communications Commission said the Bells' arrangements to collect fees for referring their local customers to Qwest violated the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which limits the companies from offering long distance service. ===================== More data. I suspect that the rumor was during the day and the data came out after the close. We've got to deal with this stock-price-wise again tomorrow, for real. _____________________ Monday September 28, 5:33 pm Eastern Time Telecom-Qwest Washington The ruling was a victory for leading long distance carriers, like AT&T Corp.(NYSE:T - news) and MCI WorldCom Inc.(Nasdaq:WCOM - news), that had filed lawsuits to block the marketing deals announced in May. The courts referred the issue to the FCC. The Bells have been continually thwarted in their attempts to crack the $90 billion long distance market. Under the telecom act, the companies may not offer long distance services directly until they open their local networks to competitors but so far the FCC has rejected all four Bell applications. US West and Ameritech, which is being acquired by SBC Communications Inc.(NYSE:SBC - news), maintained they were permitted under the 1996 act to market long distance service provided by an unaffiliated company like Qwest. The Qwest deals were temporarily suspended in June pending the FCC's final assessment. Over 130,000 US West customers signed up for the 10 cents per minute Qwest deal in the three weeks it was offered before being suspended.