MCI WorldCom Calls For New Proceeding On Bell Atlantic-GTE Merger In Pennsylvania

Impact of Attorney General's Merger Agreement on Local
Phone Competition Forces New Examination

HARRISBURG, PA, August 4, 1999 -- MCI WorldCom is calling on
the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) to order all-new
proceedings and/or more fact-finding hearings on Bell Atlantic's
proposed merger with GTE. MCI WorldCom's call for additional
proceedings follows an announcement last week that Bell Atlantic and
GTE had reached an agreement with Attorney General Mike Fisher on
several steps the merging companies would take to open Bell
Atlantic-Pennsylvania's local telephone monopoly in exchange for
merger approval.

"The problem is that the PUC has been trying to address these
same local competition issues and more in a series of separate
proceedings," said Carl Giesy, MCI WorldCom regional director of
public policy. "Now we're forced to ask for further
proceedings to find out exactly what Bell Atlantic is committing to do
under this merger agreement and how its actions will impact the
PUC's ongoing local competition proceedings."

MCI WorldCom told the PUC that the intent of the merger agreement is
unclear to the monopoly's rivals.

"If Bell Atlantic is trying to force-feed its local competition
policy demands on the PUC under the guise of the merger, then there are
problems," Giesy said. "Bell Atlantic can't be allowed to
end run all the work the Commission and others have done to bring local
competition to Pennsylvania."

The conditions outlined in the merger agreement also fall far short
of commitments Bell Atlantic has made to open its monopoly market in
other states, namely New York.

"While Bell Atlantic and GTE have touted this agreement as good
for consumers and competition, it seems more like an attempt to skirt
the law," said Giesy. "They appear to be doing as little as
possible to get signoff on an anti-consumer merger and block future
local phone competition to boot."

Giesy reiterated MCI WorldCom's position since the federal
Telecommunications Act of 1996 became the law of the land: "Bell
Atlantic and GTE must be forced to open their local phone markets to
real competition before this commission, or any regulator, allows them
to create an even bigger local monopoly."

In addition, MCI WorldCom warned that Bell Atlantic has a long
history of making - and breaking - promises to regulators, competitors
and, in turn, Pennsylvania consumers.

"Bell Atlantic made region-wide market opening promises to gain
federal regulators' approval of its merger with Nynex, but
competitors have never seen the region-wide deployment of critical
computer systems they were promised," Giesy said. "Without
these systems, competitors can't hope to begin providing local
service to residential local customers."

Giesy said Bell Atlantic has also repeatedly broken promises it made
to implement the pro-competitive mandates of the Telecom Act and
Pennsylvania law, forcing MCI WorldCom and other competitors to turn to
the PUC time and time again for enforcement. "Bell Atlantic's
history of broken promises should be enough to make the PUC and
customers wary of this latest ploy to further protect its statewide
local phone monopoly."

Specifically, MCI WorldCom is asking the PUC to:

1. Suspend the current merger briefing schedule while it determines
whether to hold additional proceedings.

2. Allow MCI WorldCom and others to request additional information
from Bell Atlantic and GTE about the terms of the merger agreement.

3. Allow MCI WorldCom and others to comment on the agreement and, if
necessary, hold hearings on the effect of the agreement on the on-going
global settlement process.

4. Take any other steps needed to clearly determine how the
agreement would impact the companies' local phone monopolies and
the positions they have taken so far in the in the global settlement
process.

MCI WorldCom is a global leader in communications services with 1998
revenues of more than $30 billion and established operations in over 65
countries encompassing the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific
regions. MCI WorldCom is a premier provider of facilities-based and
fully integrated local, long distance, international and Internet
services. MCI WorldCom's global networks, including its
state-of-the-art pan-European network and transoceanic cable systems,
provide end-to-end high-capacity connectivity to more than 40,000
buildings worldwide. MCI WorldCom is traded on NASDAQ under WCOM. For
more information on MCI WorldCom, visit the World Wide Web at
http://www.wcom.com.