BRIEFLY

VEGAS ROLLS DICE ON LOCAL COMPETITION NevTEL, a new competitive access provider, has signed an agreement with Sprint that enables the CAP to provide facilities-based local service in Las Vegas. The carrier is investing $12 million to install a local switching facility and national operations center. It will offer services, including dial tone, Centrex, ISDN/switched digital services and number translation, in early November.

LONG-DISTANCE BATTLE REACHES SOUTH GTE has started marketing its long-distance service in South Carolina under the Easy Savings Plan name. The offering is now available to customers in 24 states. GTE started offering long-distance on March 4 and plans to offer it in all 50 states by year's end.

PHONE OUTAGE HITS CARIBBEAN ISLAND An estimated 2200 homes and businesses on the Caribbean island of St. Croix are without phone service-some of them for three weeks now-and some Virgin Islanders suspect union-related sabotage. Reports of slashed cables in upscale areas of the island coincide with the Sept. 30 expiration of a contract between phone workers and the Virgin Islands Telephone Co. David Sharp, Vitelco president and chief executive officer, called it "unbelievable" that someone would deliberately destroy telephone service.