ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020024
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
With the goal of giving Americans more telephone choices and lower prices, federal regulators approved rules Thursday opening the $100 billion local phone market to long distance and cable TV companies.
The rules, approved 4-0 by the Federal Communications Commission, complete agency implementation of a measure passed by Congress six months ago to overhaul telecommunication laws that have been in place for 62 years.
Customers in New York, Texas and California could begin to see multiple choices for residential local phone service by the end of the year, state regulators and telephone companies said.
But ``for the average consumer, the world will not look different tomorrow,'' because states have to authorize new competitors, said Gina Keeney, the FCC's top telephone regulator.
About a dozen states have or are in the process of allowing new rivals into the local phone business, now dominated by the nation's seven regional Bell companies. The FCC's rules will set a national policy.
``The states have been given tools by the FCC to deliver competition to consumers,'' said Bradley Stillman, telecommunication policy director for the Consumer Federation of America. ``Now it will be up to the states to hit the ball out of the park.''
Virginia was ahead of federal regulators in allowing competition for local phone service. The state began permitting competition at the start of this year under legislation passed by the 1995 General Assembly.
Already, the State Corporation Commission has approved the applications of six companies, including long distance provider AT&T and television cable operator Cox Communications, to offer phone service in competition with Bell Atlantic and other local phone service providers. The SCC has seven applications pending from potential competitors.
Bell Atlantic said Thursday that it welcomes the FCC's action on local competition.
Once Bell Atlantic has competitors for its local phone service business, the new telecommunication law will allow the company to get into the long distance business within its own local service territory, which covers six mid-Atlantic states and Washington, D.C. The company said it plans to offer its customers long distance service by the first half of 1997.
The new law already allows Bell Atlantic into the long distance business outside its local territory. The company announced Wednesday that it had begun offering long distance business in Michigan, North Carolina and Texas.
Many regulators and telephone executives say it will take at least five years for most Americans to have multiple choices for local service.
But FCC Chairman Reed Hundt said Americans might soon see companies vying for their local phone business.
``At Christmas, I think you'll see a huge uptick in advertising and you will see the same kind of television wars that we see between MCI and Sprint and AT&T in long distance. But I don't think you're going to see much in the real world until then.''
Staff writer Greg Edwards contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB