NYNEX Files to Offer Long Distance Service in New York State

February 18, 1997

CONTACT: JamieDePeau, 202-336-7825

NYNEX Files to Offer Long Distance Service in New York State

ALBANY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18,

1997--Beginning its drive to offer customers in New York

State more choice for long-distance communications service,

NYNEX today filed with the New York Public Service

Commission (NYPSC) a draft application for entry into the

long-distance telephone market in New York State.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996

spelled out the terms under which companies such as NYNEX

could provide long-distance telecommunications services to

customers in their own regions. The law states that local

telephone companies like NYNEX can provide long-distance

service once they have complied with all the requirements of

the Act including a 14-point checklist of requirements to

open their local markets to competition and secured FCC

approval.

"Today, NYNEX is taking an important

step in our goal to offer customers of New York State a full

array of communications services including both local and

long-distance service," said Don Reed, NYNEX President and

Group Executive. "This informational filing with the New

York Public Service Commission kicks off the official review

process for our entry into long distance in New York. We

fully expect that during the sixty-day review period with

the PSC, NYNEX will make modifications and additions to the

application so that by early April, when we file our

application with the Federal Communications Commission, we

will be in a position to meet all the requirements necessary

to receive approval to enter the long-distance market in New

York State."

Long before the Telecommunications Act

of 1996 was enacted into law, NYNEX and New York State's

competition-oriented Public Service Commission adopted

pro-competitive policies that have made the local telephone

market in New York State one of the most accessible and

competitive in the country.

NYNEX was the first Regional Bell

Operating Company (RBOC) to:

• negotiate interconnection agreements

• provide competitors unbundled access

  to its network

• provide physical collocation in its

  central offices

• assign telephone numbers to local

  exchange competitors

• provide reciprocal compensation to

  competitive local exchange carriers for completing calls

• implement intraLATA toll

  competition

Since the passage of the Act, NYNEX is

the first RBOC to establish an electronic operating support

system for resale services and establish a comprehensive

resale center to meet the needs of new market entrants

buying services from NYNEX on a resale basis -- two key

requirements necessary to meet the 14-point checklist.

NYNEX previously filed with the NYPSC a

Statement of Generally Available Terms and Conditions under

which it will provide NYNEX facilities and services to

telecommunications carriers as required by the 14-point

checklist. These Terms and Conditions demonstrate that all

barriers to entry to the local market have been removed.

Pending approval of the Terms and Conditions by the NYPSC,

NYNEX will provide new market entrants any service they need

to enter the local market on an individual contract basis

under the terms outlined in the Terms and Conditions.

Reed noted, "Here are the facts: Fifty

wireline carriers and 23 wireless carriers are certified by

the NYPSC to provide competitive local exchange services in

New York. Since we opened our Resale Center in New York four

months ago, we've processed thousands of orders for resold

lines and unbundled loops. And, NYNEX has provided 160

blocks of telephone numbers to local exchange competitors.

The development of competition in New York clearly

demonstrates that the barriers are down.

"This filing is very comprehensive.

We're taking a systematic, well-reasoned, measured approach

that will maximize the probability that we'll succeed the

first time through the regulatory review process.

"To those competitors who will express

opposition to this filing, I say, the market is open, it's

now up to you to come in and compete," Reed added.

NYNEX is a global communications and

media corporation that provides a full range of services in

the northeastern United States and high-growth markets

around the world, including the United Kingdom, Thailand,

Gibraltar, Greece, Indonesia, the Philippines, Poland,

Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The corporation is a leader

in telecommunications, wirefree communications, directory

publishing and video entertainment and information services.

NYNEX is also managing sponsor of FLAG -- Fiberoptic Link

Around the Globe -- the world's longest undersea fiber optic

communications cable.

FAX copies of recent NYNEX news releases are available free of charge, 24 hours a day. Call 1-800-331-1214 and an automated system will provide instructions.