Urges Pennsylvania Regulators To Embrace Competition Before
Telecom Act's Third Anniversary
HARRISBURG, PA, October 21, 1998 -
Tomorrow, MCI WorldCom will join other competitive local phone
providers, Bell Atlantic and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
(PUC) in the first session of the PUC's global settlement talks
intended to resolve operational, economic and regulatory roadblocks to
a fully competitive local phone market.
"MCI WorldCom is serious about participating in these
settlement talks because we are serious about bringing competition to
the local Pennsylvania phone market," said C.K. "Chip"
Casteel, Jr., MCI regional executive for MCI WorldCom Public
Policy.
MCI WorldCom, which provides an alternative to Bell Atlantic's
local monopoly for business customers using its own network facilities
in King of Prussia, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, is hopeful that these
discussions will speed the expansion of local competition to consumers
across the Commonwealth. To that end, the company is calling for clear,
date-certain deadlines for the talks that would ensure action by
February 8, 1999 -- the third anniversary of the federal
Telecommunications Act, the landmark legislation that promised choice,
improved service, innovation and savings in the local phone market. A
promise that remains unfulfilled in Pennsylvania.
"MCI WorldCom wants to assure customers that there will be a
light at the end of this tunnel," Casteel said. "That is why
we are asking the PUC to put a time limit on these talks. We don't
want consumers to go one more day than is necessary without enjoying
the benefits of local phone competition promised in the Telecom
Act."
MCI WorldCom believes the collaborative process will accomplish its
pro-consumer goals only if regulators are fully engaged in the
discussions and prepared to make the kind of tough, pro-competitive
decision needed to disassemble Bell Atlantic's 100-year-old local
phone monopoly. Issues to be addressed are wide-ranging, from the
wholesale prices competitors must pay for access to the Bell-controlled
public phone network to how to equitably pay for subsidy programs such
as universal service.
MCI WorldCom agrees with the U.S. Department of Justice that the
local phone market must be irreversibly opened to competitors before
state and federal regulators allow Bell Atlantic to provide long
distance service to its customers in Pennsylvania, as mandated by the
Telecom Act. MCI WorldCom believes that this prerequisite should serve
as an incentive for Bell Atlantic to cooperate with the settlement
process -- as its compliance will only serve to accelerate its
subsequent entry into Pennsylvania's already-competitive long
distance market.
MCI WorldCom is a global telecommunications company with 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 35,000 buildings worldwide. For
more information on MCI MCI WorldCom, visit the World Wide Web at
www.mciworldcom.com
.
