Verizon's New York Competitors To Benefit From PSC Rulings

Communications Today, March 4, 2002

Competitors of Verizon Communications [VZ] in New York should benefit from recent decisions by the New York Public Services Commission concerning pricing, an analyst says.

This past Wednesday, the PSC approved Verizon's plan to raise the monthly retail rates it charges New York customers by 4 percent beginning March 1. This past month, the commission also approved significant reductions in the wholesale prices that Verizon New York can charge competitors for access to its network.

"By simultaneously raising the pricing umbrella and lowering wholesale costs, Verizon has improved the potential profit opportunity for competitors," Credit Suisse First Boston [CSR] analyst Dan Reingold said in a research note on Thursday. "However, given the demise of most CLECs over the last 18 months and the big three long-distance companies halting local market entry, we do not believe that these threats will re-emerge in the forseeable future." >TK SBC Communications [SBC]: AT&T [T]: