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To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (2170)	12/15/1998 8:45:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Respond to of 3178

Bell Atlantic delays long-distance entry December 15, 1998 Network World: New York It now appears certain that the third anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 will come and go in February with no regional Bell operating company authorized to enter the long-distance business. Officials at Bell Atlantic recently confirmed the company will not file its long-awaited application to enter the long-distance business in New York state by year-end. Bell Atlantic inked a provisional long-distance agreement with the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) last spring but has put off the decisive step: a filing with the Federal Communications Commission. Tom Tauke, Bell Atlantic's senior vice president for government relations in Washington, D.C., says Bell Atlantic now plans to file with the FCC by February. Bell Atlantic's delay dooms chances for the industry and regulators to point to RBOC long-distance progress when the telecom act's anniversary rolls around Feb. 8. The act, among other things, was supposed to make it easier for RBOCs to get into long distance, provided they met certain conditions. Under the law, the FCC gets 90 days to review RBOC long-distance applications. The FCC has already rejected five such applications, and no RBOC has an application pending at the FCC. Tauke says the blame should rest on existing long-distance carriers. For example, AT&T has demanded that the PSC include unrealistic procedures in the ordering test. As a result, Bell Atlantic must test whether it can provide 130 different combinations of network elements. "You could not find an unbiased industry expert who would say that the vast majority of those combinations will ever be used," Tauke says. AT&T officials retort that Bell Atlantic and other RBOCs have deliberately avoided filing long-distance applications at the FCC because it would involve opening their local markets too much. Tauke brushes that accusation aside. "If we don't get into long distance in 1999, it will be considered a major failure for everyone," Tauke says. <<Network World -- 12-14-98, p. 33>> [Copyright 1998, Network World]