For the first time in nearly 16 years, the word "Bell" means "long-distance."
The Federal Communications Commission today approved Bell Atlantic's application to enter the long-distance market for customers in New York State. Bell Atlantic will begin selling long-distance voice and data services to business and residential users starting Jan. 5.
Along with the other regional Bell operating companies, Bell Atlantic had been barred from carrying traffic across local boundaries since January 1984.
The FCC refused current long-distance carriers' requests to condition Bell Atlantic's long-distance authority on certain measures. FCC Chairman William Kennard said that under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the agency was required to vote the application up or down.
Rather than limit Bell Atlantic's authority, Kennard says the agency will rely on a "Performance Assurance Plan" developed by the New York Public Service Commission. Under the plan, Bell Atlantic will be subject to up to $269 million in penalties if it stops making its local loops available to competitors on a timely and nondiscriminatory basis.
Kennard did say the FCC retains the authority to suspend or revoke the long-distance authority for Bell Atlantic in New York if its performance in terms of fostering local competition deteriorates.
Bell Atlantic won long-distance authority largely on the basis of a showing that it provisions competitors' orders on time in 93% of all cases, and that a majority of the time such orders are completely electronic with no manual intervention.
In a key part of today's decision, the FCC said Bell Atlantic recently showed that it can specifically provision digital subscriber line (DSL) orders of competitors on a reasonable basis. Kennard said other Bells in other states will also have to specifically show that they provide not just analog and private-line circuits, but also DSL lines, to competitors before they win long-distance authority.
However, a large wave of new long-distance applications from Bell Atlantic and others is not expected in the near term. SBC says it will file for long-distance authority in Texas next month, which would force an FCC ruling by April. BellSouth says it will file for Georgia "soon" but has not specified a date. Bell Atlantic is expected to devise some sort of schedule for long-distance applications for the rest of its states as soon as later today.
One key factor limiting the spread of Bell long-distance authority across the country is that in New York, Bell Atlantic agreed to an extensive independent test of its local-competition ordering systems by KPMG. Many other states are just beginning such testing of so-called "operations and support systems" for local competition.
RELATED LINKS
Recent articles and columns by Rohde
Feedback
Tell us your thoughts on this article or the issues it raises.
