THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 9, 1996 TAG: 9610090410
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 37 lines
Virginia Power has asked the State Corporation Commission for permission to offer long-distance telephone service on its 250-mile, fiber-optic network.
The state's largest electric utility plans to sell access to its lines, now used for its own internal communications, to long-distance carriers. The network stretches from Northern Virginia through Richmond to Norfolk.
Virginia Power can reduce its need for rate hikes with such an arrangement, William S. Mistr, the company's vice president for information technology, said Tuesday.
``I think getting this revenue will benefit the ratepayer. In effect, it will hold costs down,'' Mistr said.
The company's fiber-optic lines, installed mostly in the mid-1980s, run along its high-voltage transmission lines. What Virginia Power wants to do is allow long-distance companies to route some of their traffic over the lines.
Rich Blasi, a spokesman for long-distance giant AT&T, said his company believes that moves like Virginia Power's indicate ever-increasing competition in the long-distance business.
Paul Miller, a spokesman for Bell Atlantic of Virginia, said he was concerned that Virginia Power might be using its monopoly position to subsidize a venture into a new business.
Utilities across the country have started moving into telecommunications with the passage earlier this year of new national legislation aimed at boosting competition.
Central & South West Corp., Entergy Corp., General Public Utilities and Southern Co. all have asked the Federal Communications Commission to let them enter the telecommunications business, while Boston Edison Co. last week announced a joint venture to provide local and long-distance telephone service, as well as video and high-speed Internet access service. by CNB