THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 25, 1995 TAG: 9507250382
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
Starting Oct. 1, consumers can choose which phone company to use when making short-distance toll calls in Virginia, such as from Virginia Beach to Williamsburg.
The State Corporation Commission said Monday that it will eliminate local phone companies' monopolies on so-called intra-LATA calls.
There are six LATAs, or Local Access and Transport Areas, in Virginia. Hampton Roads is part of one of them.
Now, local-exchange carriers like Bell Atlantic or GTE monopolize long-distance calling within each region.
Virginia was the only state that barred competition for such calls. Long-distance carriers such as AT&T and MCI have said rates for the calls are much higher than they would be if competition were allowed.
Virginia's commission had resisted intra-LATA competition for 10 years, claiming it would be unfair to Bell Atlantic and GTE. It has pointed out that those companies aren't allowed under a federal court order to handle toll calls from one region of the state, or LATA, to another. Long-distance carriers like AT&T and MCI compete for that business.
Congress is about to lift the latter barrier, so the commission says it's time to lift its own protections for Bell Atlantic and GTE. The state agency's decision comes as it is proposing rules that will introduce competition in a host of other local phone services next year.
Bell Atlantic and GTE may still have an advantage when providing intra-LATA calls. Customers who use other carriers for an intra-LATA call will have to dial an additional prefix such as ``950'' first, the commission said. Extra digits discourage some customers from choosing a competing service. by CNB