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To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (2635)	4/19/1999 7:26:00 AM
From: Secret_Agent_Man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3178

April 19, 1999 FCC May Require Baby Bells To Open Networks to Rivals By KATHY CHEN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission is considering requiring the Baby Bells to open parts of their high-speed telephone networks to rival carriers, triggering protests from the Bells. The agency raised that prospect Friday as part of a wider plan to mandate what kind of network access incumbent local-phone companies should offer competitors. As part of the 1996 telecommunications act, the FCC had required that the Bells open seven other parts of their telephone networks, arguing these were necessary to allow rivals to compete on an equal footing. The agency is now reviewing that seven-part list following a Supreme Court ruling in January, and may revise it. The agency is aiming to release a final access proposal by August after reviewing industry response. But its mere consideration of including access to the high-speed lines -- vital to fast Internet connections -- has infuriated the Bells. They say that rivals already can access high-speed networks through other channels -- for example, by leasing them from each other -- so the Bells shouldn't be forced to make their lines available. Robert Blau, BellSouth Corp.'s vice president of federal regulatory affairs, urged the FCC to conduct a market test of that availability. "In BellSouth's view, that availability is beyond dispute," he said. But Larry Strickling, the FCC's chief telephone official, said the agency isn't sure that is the case. While parts of high-speed lines are available on the market, he said they don't offer the same wide reach as the Bells' vast networks. Indeed, the FCC had considered requiring the Bells to open parts of their networks under a separate measure and put that on hold pending its review of the overall network-access proposal. But Mr. Strickling said that "we felt there's still a need for them to be included." How much access rivals should have to the Bells' networks has been a contentious issue. Even FCC commissioners were so divided that the access proposal makes only two recommendations: to establish a national standard for opening parts of the Bell networks; and that loops -- the final segment of phone line that links a phone company to the customer's telephone -- most likely be included in the new list. The proposal then raises various options for how the Bells could open up their networks. These include the possibility of phasing out from the mandatory-access list any parts of the Bell networks that become widely available on the market. It also raises allowing state regulators to add or remove network parts from the list.