CFA Smokescreen of the Day

"Dedicated to truth, justice, and the disclosure of
utrageous claims regarding competition in the local phone markets"

January 22, 1998
Smokescreen of the Day

A study recently released by the Consumer Federation of American
(CFA), "Stonewalling Local Competition: The Baby Bell Strategy For
Subverting The Telecommunications Act of 1996," makes several broad
brush generalizations about the Bell companies, which are either false
or do not apply to Bell Atlantic.

There is competition in Bell Atlantic's market, it is growing and Bell
Atlantic is doing everything it can to open its local markets. New
York State, where Bell Atlantic has filed with the NY PSC in advance
of its long distance filing with the FCC, is widely regarded as the
most competitive local phone market in the country. In fact, as the
CFA itself has said of Bell Atlantic's efforts in New York: "It is
clear on the basis of the record in New York that, unlike the vast
majority of states, significant effort has been made to open the local
network to competition."

Bell Atlantic appreciates the support and recognition that has it
received from CFA in the past, but wants to set the record straight on
its commitment to opening local markets in the context of this recent
study.

CFA CLAIM: There is very little competition in the local phone market.

FACT: Competition in Bell Atlantic's local markets is real and it is
growing. Bell Atlantic has 393 interconnection agreements with
competitors and has assigned 20,000,000 phone numbers to competitors
in local phone service. That's more phone numbers than exist in the
entire state of New York.

At the current rate of growth, the number of additional minutes of
conversation, data and faxes that will pass between Bell Atlantic and
its in-region competitors over 12 months is more than all the phone
traffic in Washington, D.C. and Vermont in a given year.

Further, the recent moves by AT&T, SBC Communications and WorldCom to
acquire Teleport Communications, Southern New England Telephone (SNET)
and Brooks Fiber respectively are a strong signal of how competitive
these markets are, and how much more competitive they will become.

The fact that companies such as AT&T are willing to spend billions to
acquire local phone companies shows that the markets are open to
anyone who wants to enter them and that the companies who want to
compete have the economic incentive to do so.

CFA Claim: Market share is the best measure of competition in local
markets and Bell Atlantic still has a strong hold on its market share
in the local markets.

FACT: That may by CFA's opinion, however there is no market share
requirement in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Bell Atlantic is
only required to open its markets. Congress correctly determined that
existing local service providers could not make competitors enter
their markets. Bell Atlantic also cannot control the fact that when
the long distance providers have chosen to enter the local market it
has only been to compete for business customers.

In New York State, where Bell Atlantic has filed with the NY PSC in
advance of its long distance filing with the FCC, Bell Atlantic has
met the 14-point checklist required in the Act. Bell Atlantic has
interconnection agreements with all three of the long distance giants.
However, Bell Atlantic cannot force AT&T, MCI and Sprint to offer
local residential phone service.

In New York State, Bell Atlantic is processing between 1,000-2,000
resale orders a day, with the capacity to process five times this
amount. If the long distance companies are not offering local phone
service it is not because they can't; it is because they won't.

CFA CLAIM: Consumers are not recognizing the cost benefits they
should from increased competition in local phone markets.

FACT: Basic residential phone service is already a great bargain for
consumers. Currently, the rates for customers are set by the state
public service commissions and the prices are set below the actual
cost of the service to ensure universal access to basic phone service.

Where customers will see the greatest cost benefits will be in the
packaging of services. Once companies, such as Bell Atlantic, are
allowed into the long distance market, providers will be able to
assemble packages of telecommunications services at more competitive
prices.

CFA CLAIM: The Bell companies are subverting the Telecommunications
Act.

FACT: Bell Atlantic is not only complying with the Telecommunications
Act, the company is exceeding it. In addition to spending over $1
billion to ready its market for competition, Bell Atlantic is offering
all its competitors services including:

• access to Bell Atlantic databases and ordering systems;
• interconnection at various points in the Bell Atlantic network;
• collocation of equipment in Bell Atlantic central offices;
• interconnection to other companies;
• number portability; and
• access to what are commonly called "unbundled network elements."

The Smoke Detector from Bell Atlantic is designed to give you early
warning anytime "smoke" shows up in the advertisements, press
releases, public statements or reports, issued by public interest
groups or the long distance companies who claim that local competition
does not exist.