ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 4, 1996 TAG: 9606040044
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bell Atlantic-Virginia and a Denver company filed an agreement with state regulators Monday, the first in the country linking rival telephone and cable television systems.
A 58-page document outlining the agreement between Bell Atlantic and Jones Communications was filed with the State Corporation Commission, which must approve the deal.
The agreement would allow Jones, a cable television provider in Northern Virginia, and Bell Atlantic to route local calls traveling on their respective networks to each other's customers. Bell Atlantic is the state's largest phone company, with more than 2.5 million customers.
The deal, which would compensate each company, specifies terms, including that Bell Atlantic's and Jones' local phone customers can switch companies without having to change phone numbers and that enhanced services such as Caller ID will work with calls made on each network.
``We've been saying there is a blurring of the two industries,'' Bell Atlantic spokesman Paul Miller said Monday. ``This is evidence that competition is here.''
The ``interconnection'' agreement is crucial to Bell Atlantic's efforts to provide long-distance service to its own customers in Virginia. The company has been barred from providing long-distance service since 1984 by a federal antitrust decree.
Under a new federal telecommunication law, Bell Atlantic must face some competition in the residential and business phone market from a competitor using some of its own equipment and wires before Bell Atlantic may provide long-distance service to its own customers in a state.
Federal regulators will examine the agreement once Bell Atlantic applies to provide long-distance service to Virginia customers. Miller said that could happen this fall.
The agreement is important to Jones as its seeks to branch out into the local phone business. The agreement allows Jones to connect local calls carried on its cable systems serving Reston, Alexandria and most of Prince William County.
Also, it allows Jones to use Bell Atlantic's facilities to provide local phone service in areas of Virginia where Jones does not have a cable TV network, such as Roanoke.
In places where Jones does not have a cable system - such as Roanoke - the company could buy phone service from Bell Atlantic at wholesale or bulk rates and then resell it to consumers, Miller explained.
The agreement with Jones likely will not be the last between Bell Atlantic and competitors. The company has talks under way with roughly 30 carriers throughout its six-state and District of Columbia service area, Miller said.
One potential competitor for Bell Atlantic in the Roanoke area is Cox Communications, which earlier this year asked the SCC for permission to provide local phone service in the state.
Staff writer Greg Edwards contributed to this story.
AP-DS-06-03-96 1522E8
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB