Connecticut's Local Phone Competitors Unite To Advance Goals Of Market-Opening Legislation

HARTFORD, CT, July 1, 1999 -- An industry group of competitive
local telecommunications providers and the two leading national
associations representing the competitive telecommunications and resale
industries, are joining together to promote the introduction of new
communications services to Connecticut telephone customers. The group
will focus its efforts on advancing the goals of a recently passed bill
that set forth a timetable for breaking SNET's 99% monopoly control
of the local phone market in Connecticut.
The companies and associations support the pro-competitive goals of
the legislation and believe that by speaking with one voice they can
help state regulators simplify the job of enacting the complicated, yet
essential, provisions of the legislation. Among the companies joining
the effort are AT&T, the Competitive Telecommunications Association
(CompTel), MCI WorldCom, Partner Communications Group Inc., Sprint and
the Telecommunications Resellers Association (TRA).

"Our companies want to provide state regulators with the
necessary industry information to make the difficult decisions needed
to irreversibly open the local telephone market to competition,"
said Terry Monroe, CompTel's Vice President of State Government
Affairs. "We hope our combined real market experience in dealing
with SNET will aid the Department of Public Utility Control as it sets
the pro-competitive rules of the road. Connecticut customers deserve
the benefits of competition that their neighbors in other states are
seeing today -- lower prices, improved service and new innovative
products."

The legislation (SB 1299/PA-99-222), passed at the end of the
legislative term June 9 and signed by Governor Rowland June 29, calls
for the DPUC to quickly decide critical remaining issues preventing
competitors from entering the local phone market on a wide-scale basis,
including:

· Pricing: The bill gives the DPUC until July 1, 2000, to set
"forward-looking" rates that competitors must pay SNET for
leasing pieces -- or combined segments -- of the existing public phone
network.

· Operations Support Systems (OSS): The bill requires SNET to have
nondiscriminatory, automated electronic systems in place by November 1,
2000, so competitors can interface with SNET's systems to place
commercial volumes of orders, bill and maintain customers. The bill
also requires critical third-party testing of the "OSS"
systems to ensure they work in a real-world business environment.

· Performance Standards and Penalties: The bill requires the
Department to adopt standards by April 1, 2000, to measure how well
SNET performs in a competitive environment. The standards will address
the services and functions SNET provides its resellers and
facilities-based competitors, such as ordering, provisioning, billing,
maintenance and repair. The DPUC also has been given the ability to
impose greater fines when SNET fails to obey an order or acts in an
anticompetitive manner.

"By embracing this bill, Governor Rowland and the legislature
sent a clear message to state regulators, SNET and the people of
Connecticut: Connecticut will not be left behind while consumers in
other states are beginning to enjoy the benefits of local phone
competition," said Robert Lopardo, Regional Director of Public
Policy for MCI WorldCom. "We are joining together in the interest
of competition and the benefits it will bring the state, its consumers
and the companies in our coalition to ensure that Connecticut's
transition to an open local phone market is as smooth and speedy as
possible."