New York PSC: Thumbs Up To Bell Atlantic

Communications Today, Oct 20, 1999

Bell Atlantic [BEL] scored a clean win yesterday, when New York PSC Chairman Maureen Helmer advised the FCC that the carrier had met its obligations to enter the long-distance market.

In a 177-page report, Helmer said the carrier has met the 14-point Section 271 checklist. "Postponement of long-distance entry will not serve the consumer," Helmer wrote. "Neither will simply waiting for wholesale performance that goes beyond the requirements of the 1996 Act."

The FCC thus has before it, by general consensus, the most statistically valid support of a 271 application in the Telecom Act's tortuous history. The PSC's report goes well beyond the checklist, incorporating 122 performance metrics from the Performance Assurance Plan agreed to by Bell Atlantic.

The ILEC hasn't yet met all of those measurements, but those it hasn't are non-critical, Helmer said. "We cannot say that its wholesale service is perfect," she said of Bell Atlantic. "But the 1996 act does not mandate perfection."

An FCC decision is expected in December. Bell Atlantic spokesman Mark Marchand said the carrier is confident. "We feel that this state recommendation will carry more weight than any other state in the country at this point," he said.

Helmer's comments will probably carry the most weight at the FCC, but AT&T [T], MCI WorldCom [WCOM] and others also filed yesterday. AT&T's criticized Bell Atlantic's OSS. "The New York Commission acknowledges but then chooses to disregard shortcomings that it previously deemed significant," VP Len Cali said.

BA's Government In Exile

If the FCC clears Bell Atlantic for long distance, the carrier says it's prepared. "We'll be open for business the next day," spokesman Marchand said. "We've been at this for a long time. We're ready."

The carrier has set up a unit, Bell Atlantic Communications, to handle its in-area long distance. In April, it tapped Maura Breen as the unit's president and CEO.

What do people do at a business that can't sell its product? Build infrastructure and make deals. Intriguingly, Bell Atlantic execs say they have a deal with a major LDC to carry their out-of-area traffic.

After years of increasingly ugly feuding with AT&T, it seems likely Bell Atlantic execs would swallow razor blades rather than give business to Basking Ridge. That leaves MCI WorldCom/Sprint [FON], who won't yet confirm a deal.