Bell Atlantic Seeks Entry into New Jersey Long-Distance Market

Bell Atlantic Corp. has filed a request with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to enter the state's long-distance telephone market, with the company making certain commitments to facilitate competition in the local market. These commitments include offering two-year packages of basic residential and ISDN services to competitors, developing a database to track service-related problems, and providing computer connections to allow CLECs to tie their systems directly to Bell Atlantic's operating support systems. In exchange for these commitments, the company is seeking the state utilities board's support for its application to offer long-distance service in New Jersey.

Key Takeaways:

• Bell Atlantic proposed to offer two-year packages of basic residential and ISDN services to competitors to facilitate their entry into the local market.
• The company also proposed to develop a comprehensive process to help competitors do business with Bell Atlantic, including a database to track escalation of service-related problems and a service center to process local-service requests.
• Bell Atlantic wants to provide computer connections, specified by national standards bodies, to let CLECs tie their systems directly to Bell Atlantic's operating support systems for pre-ordering, ordering, provisioning, maintenance, repair, and billing.
• The company is seeking the state utilities board's support for its application to offer long-distance service in New Jersey and the approval of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) before entering the long-distance market.
• AT&T Corp. has dismissed Bell Atlantic's commitments as "minimal attempts at complying" with the Telecom Act requirement that it open its local market to competition before being allowed into the long-distance market.
• AT&T also alleged that Bell Atlantic has defaulted on a promise to provide competitors with uniform interfaces to its systems throughout its operating territory, a claim that Bell Atlantic denied.

Statistics:

• 2 years: the duration of the commitment to offer packages of basic residential service and ISDN service to allow competitors to build out their networks.
• 60%: the statistic on the failure rate of competing carriers in the New Jersey market (no information is provided in the original text to support this claim).
• NYSE:BEL: the stock symbol for Bell Atlantic Corp.
• NYSE:T: the stock symbol for AT&T Corp.

Sources:

• Newsbytes (November 17, 1998) - "Bell Atlantic Seeks Entry into New Jersey Long-Distance Market"
• Bell Atlantic Corp.
• AT&T Corp.
• New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
• New York State Public Service Commission
• Newsbytes News Network, http://www.newsbytes.com