AT&T Asks PUC to Ensure Flawed Bell Atlantic Systems are Fixed To Make Way for Safe, Fair Local Phone Competition - the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission is asked to check Bell Atlantic's switching systems - Government Activity

Cambridge Telcom Report, Jan 17, 2000

Eager to compete broadly in Pennsylvania's local phone service market, AT&T has asked the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to take immediate steps to ensure that Bell Atlantic's back-office systems for switching customers to Bell's competitors work at least as well as the systems Bell uses to serve its own customers. AT&T said KPMG, the independent company testing Bell's systems and processes, has found serious deficiencies that may not be corrected without the PUC's intervention and that could cause service outages as customers switch from the state's largest local phone monopoly to a competitor.

AT&T said that unless the PUC takes appropriate action now, flawed Bell Atlantic systems will disadvantage AT&T and other competitors, create public safety problems, and generally blunt the state's innovative effort to encourage aggressive local phone competition.

"As a supplier that is also a competitor, Bell Atlantic will have little or no incentive to ensure that things go smoothly for AT&T," said Jim Ginty, president of AT&T-Pennsylvania.

Bell Atlantic has a track record of discriminating against competitors, according to the PUC's Sept. 30, 1999, order opening the local phone market to competition. In that order, the Commission said it was presented with "numerous examples where BA-PA [Bell Atlantic-Pennsylvania] has abused its market power by providing competitors with less than comparable access to its network or engaged in other discriminatory conduct that prevented BA-PA customers from switching to a competitor."

"The PUC has a responsibility to ensure that this doesn't continue to happen," said Ginty. "This is as much a public safety issue as it is a competitive issue. Consumers must be able to switch local phone carriers as reliably and easily as they now switch long distance carriers, without service outages and other problems, or they simply won't do it."

In a petition to the PUC filed late yesterday, AT&T asked the Public Utility Commission to enforce its May 3, 1999, order requiring "military- style" testing, where systems are tested, fixed and re-tested until they are proven to work, before those systems are deployed in a competitive market.

AT&T said that military-style testing procedures are not being followed. According to AT&T, when asked whether Bell's promised system "fixes" will be re-tested, KPMG "has advised that it will do so only at the direction of the Commission."

Military-style testing was required in New York, the first and only state where Bell Atlantic has won Federal Communications Commission approval to offer long distance service. In its petition, AT&T points out that as a condition of this approval, the FCC is requiring that all fixes to Bell Atlantic systems in New York be re-tested to ensure that the systems work properly.

"The FCC's directive concerning New York should remove any doubt that military-style testing is appropriate here," said Ginty.

AT&T said Pennsylvania became the most powerful magnet for telecommunications competition in the nation with the PUC's Sept. 30 order. AT&T has begun offering local phone service in western Pennsylvania through cable lines it owns there.

"We're eager to compete across Pennsylvania," said Ginty. "But we can't compete effectively when Bell's back-office systems are flawed, and there is no clear process in place to ensure they're fixed."

In addition to requesting the military-style testing previously prescribed by the PUC, AT&T's petition asks the PUC to ensure that the scope of testing is appropriate. AT&T said current testing does not cover systems and processes that will be used to switch business customers who use certain services and facility combinations.

AT&T also asked that the PUC vote on whether Bell Atlantic has passed its system test, following procedures similar to those used in New York:

* a technical conference for interested parties to pose questions and discuss issues, with the purpose of confirming that all parties understand KPMG's analysis;

* a comment period following the technical conference, where interested arties submit comments on KPMG's report to the Commission.

AT&T is the world's premier voice and data communications company, serving more than 80 million customers, including consumers, businesses and government. AT&T employs more than 6,000 people in Pennsylvania.