ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, May 2, 1996                  TAG: 9605020024
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-7  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press

2 COMPANIES WIN SCC NOD TO OFFER LOCAL PHONE SERVICES

By the beginning of 1997, some new companies may be handling local telephone service in parts of Virginia.

In the first step in opening local phone service to competition, the State Corporation Commission approved requests by MFS Intelnet and MCImetro to provide local phone service.

Competition ``is not a fact yet ... but it is on its way,'' said Anne F. LaLena, a senior manager for regulatory affairs at MFS.

MFS hopes to begin carrying calls for business customers in Richmond and Northern Virginia by the end of the year. The company already is a competitive access provider in both regions, using fiber-optic networks to connect local telephone customers and long-distance carriers.

MCImetro is the local telephone arm of MCI Communications Corp., the country's second-largest long-distance carrier. The company expects to have a network built within 18 months to carry local calls, but hopes to enter local markets sooner by reselling the service of existing companies.

The two companies are the first of eight that have filed for state certification under SCC rules issued in December.

The SCC is still developing regulations for the new competitive markets. It is studying issues such as rules for competitors to resell local service and how to ensure universal service to telephone customers throughout the state.

Competitors also must reach agreements with local companies on the terms for interconnecting networks, so customers using different carriers can talk to each other.

MFS and MCI already are talking to Bell Atlantic-Virginia, the state's largest telephone company. Robert W. Woltz Jr., Bell Atlantic vice president of external affairs, said he expects the companies to reach an agreement in the near future.

The federal deregulation of the local phone market contains incentives for the current local providers, who had a monopoly. Under the new rules, Bell Atlantic can compete in the long-distance business. The new federal law, however, requires that the company first face real competition in the local market.

``We have every incentive to speed it up rather than hold it up,'' Woltz said.

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