WorldCom Supports FCC Request for Stay of Anticompetitive Court Ruling

The following statement should be attributed to Michael H.
Salsbury, General Counsel of WorldCom, Inc.:

August 31, 2000 WorldCom (NASDAQ: WCOM), "The prompt
reinstatement of the FCC's pricing guidelines is critical if consumers
are to finally have a choice of local phone carriers as promised by the
Telecom Act more than four years ago. The 8th Circuit's decisions
continue to stall local competition by discouraging carriers from
making the investments needed to serve local markets. The 8th Circuit
got it wrong four years ago - as the Supreme Court ruled - and they got
it wrong again last month."

Background: WorldCom today urged the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in
St. Louis to grant the FCC's request that it stay a recent ruling that
threatens further delay in the development of local telephone service
competition for residential and small business customers. On July 18th,
the 8th Circuit Court ruled against the FCC's forward-looking
methodology for determining how monopoly local carriers should charge
competitive local carriers to use the public telephone network - a key
component of the Commission's implementation of the 1996
Telecommunications Act.

This was the second major challenge by the 8th Circuit Court to
local competition. Early last year, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a
previous 8th Circuit Court ruling against the FCC's authority to issue
local competition rules.

WorldCom's filing in support of the FCC was made jointly with
AT&T, Sprint and Comptel.