ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, November 9, 1996             TAG: 9611110015
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: A-5  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press

SCC SETS RATES IN LOCAL TELEPHONE COMPETITION

The State Corporation Commission has set the rates telephone companies must pay to resell Bell Atlantic-Virginia's services to their own local customers.

The rates are included in an order issued Friday by the SCC, which was required by a federal telecommunication reform law to arbitrate disputes between existing phone companies and new competitors in Virginia.

AT&T and MCI Communications want to buy services from Bell Atlantic-Virginia at wholesale prices and resell them to their own retail customers. Bell Atlantic is the state's largest local phone service provider.

The federal law requires local service providers to make their networks available to competitors. Also, companies that have provided only local service will be allowed to compete for long-distance customers.

The SCC said Bell Atlantic must offer the companies a discount of 18.5 percent. If either AT&T or MCI provides its own operator service, however, the discount will be 19.4 percent.

Bell Atlantic had proposed discounts of 15.61 percent for competitors providing their own operators and 13.22 percent for companies using Bell Atlantic operators.

AT&T argued for a discount of 27.49 percent; MCI said 21.86 percent was fair.

Neither Bell Atlantic nor MCI was completely satisfied with the SCC decision.

``We applaud the commission for its attempt to reach a fair decision,'' Bell Atlantic-Virginia spokesman Paul Miller said. ``Nevertheless, we have mixed feelings about the results. But we recognize it's time to move on.

``We are delighted we are now a significant step closer to our ultimate goal of providing our customers with the full range of telecommunications services, including long distance.''

Jay Young, regional director of public policy for MCI, said the company ``would have liked to have seen a more aggressive figure for the discount.'' However, he said the decision is an important first step toward competition.

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