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Technology Stocks : AT&T -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (2454)	5/21/1999 11:15:00 AM
From: polarisnh	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4298

Court Strikes Down Fee Cuts For Bells WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Appeals Court Friday struck down a key regulation that determines how much long distance companies must pay local phone companies for completing their calls. The Federal Communications Commission in 1997 decided that the $20 billion or so of fees paid primarily to the regional bell companies and GTE Corp. (NYSE:GTE - news) by long distance companies should decline by 6.5 percent per year. But the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the agency had not provided an adequate explanation of how it reached the 6.5 percent figure. The court said it might be willing to temporarily set aside its ruling while the FCC reconsidered the rate, known as the X-factor. Long distance carriers like AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news) and MCI WorldCom Inc. (Nasdaq:WCOM - news) are already paying billions of dollars less in so-called access charges due to the FCC-ordered reductions. Access charges, which are added to each minute of a long distance call, are higher than the actual cost to the local carriers of connecting and completing calls. But there is little agreement over how much and how fast the charges should be reduced. Local carriers argue amounts above cost are used to subsidize phone service, keeping monthly charges affordable in rural and low income areas for example. Long distance carriers maintain the extra fees simply pad the profits of the local carriers.