Benefits of Open Local Telephone Market Should Be Extended to New York Long Distance Customers

Benefits of Open Local Telephone Market Should Be Extended to New York Long Distance Customers

Final Bell Atlantic Filing Details State's Open Local Telephone Market

August 18, 1999

NEW YORK - Now that New York's local telephone market is wide open for competition, long distance customers in the state should receive the same benefits, Bell Atlantic said in a filing with the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) late Tuesday.

"Our filing demonstrates that local competition is thriving in New York," said Bell Atlantic-NY President Paul Crotty. "Competitors are serving nearly one million business and residential lines in New York. We now look forward to completing the state's review of our long distance filing Aug. 31 in a hearing before the PSC chairman.

"The PSC should support our entry into the long distance market and finally bring the benefits of competition to the captives of the existing long distance cartel," Crotty said.
The filing by Bell Atlantic and those made yesterday by other parties are required by the PSC prior to the Aug. 31 hearing.

The PSC is reviewing Bell Atlantic's compliance with a 14-point local competition checklist contained in the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. That law requires Bell Atlantic and other regional Bell companies to open local markets to competition before being allowed to sell long distance service in their home regions.

Soon after the New York process is completed Aug. 31, Bell Atlantic will file its long distance application with the Federal Communications Commission, paving the way for the company to start selling long distance service to New Yorkers by the end of the year.

"The facts show that Bell Atlantic's investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in operations support systems (OSS) has provided competitors with access to Bell Atlantic's network that gives them meaningful opportunity to compete," said Crotty.

"The independent firm that tested our systems over the past year conducted tests over thousands of hours in detailed review on a much broader scale than any competitive local company is likely to experience," he said. "It concluded that our OSS and processes satisfied 850 of 855 criteria - for a 99.4 percent success rate."

Bell Atlantic's OSS were tested exhaustively by KPMG, a third-party appointed by the PSC.
In the filing, Bell Atlantic provided the following details about the level of local competition in New York State:

• Competitive Local Exchange Companies (CLECs) serve nearly 1 million telephone lines throughout the state, over their own facilities or by other means.
• Competitors this year have exchanged some 2.5 billion minutes of use each month with Bell Atlantic, using about 330,000 interconnection trunks.
• CLECS have established over 700 collocation arrangements in Bell Atlantic's switching offices throughout New York.
• CLECS now use "unbundled loops" from Bell Atlantic to serve some 135,000 lines.
• CLECs are re-selling local phone service over about 310,000 lines purchased wholesale from Bell Atlantic - including about 60,000 residential lines.
• Bell Atlantic has PSC-approved interconnection agreements with 74 competitors in local New York markets.

Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and information industry. With more than 43 million telephone access lines and nearly ten million wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are premier providers of advanced wireline voice and data services, market leaders in wireless services and the world's largest publishers of directory information. Bell Atlantic companies are also among the world's largest investors in high-growth global communications markets, with operations and investments in 23 countries.

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