Double bogey in Michigan, Regulators say Ameritech's second long-distance try falls short

In its ongoing attempt to get onto the long-distance green in Michigan, perhaps the most used club in Ameritech's bag is the trusty wedge.

The Michigan Public Service Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice have given thumbs down to the Chicago-based carrier's second application to sell long-distance service to its local customers. Although the PSC did not explicitly recommend that the application be rejected, it found that Ameritech failed to satisfy three of 14 legal requirements.

Now the heat is on Ameritech to perfect its application by Aug. 19, the Federal Communications Commission's deadline for a final decision.

If approved, Ameritech could become the first Bell regional holding company to sell both local and long-distance service in its territory - considered a coup because of the ability to leverage market dominance.

Ameritech withdrew its first application to provide in-region long-distance service in February, after questions arose about the RHC's interconnection agreement with AT&T. Ameritech filed the new application May 21.

To get approval, the RHCs must prove they've opened up their long-standing local monopolies to competition by meeting the 14-point checklist in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In essence, the checklist requires incumbents to show they are playing fair by allowing new rivals to offer service on the same terms.

For starters, there's still the nagging issue of local competition and whether it's prominent enough to pass FCC muster.

But the Michigan PSC focused less on the broad scope of competition than on the law's specific requirements. It found that Ameritech "unconditionally" met 11 of the checklist items and should be able to satisfy the remaining three by the FCC's deadline.

One of those remaining issues is Ameritech's operations support systems. The PSC couldn't judge whether Ameritech's performance is up to par because there aren't standards to compare it with, said Ann Schneidewind, a technical specialist at the PSC.

The OSS issue has plagued Ameritech in other states. An Illinois hearing examiner last week said the OSS was fine. But the Wisconsin PSC found it inadequate.

"We're by no means fully satisfied with the state of things," said Manning Lee, vice president of regulatory affairs at Teleport Communications Group, which sells local service to businesses in 57 cities. For example, TCG can use Ameritech's electronic interface for processing orders but not for maintenance and repairs, he said.

AT&T has had problems with double billing, in which a customer who switches to AT&T gets billed for local service by both companies, Schneidewind said.

Ameritech must also address shared transport, which has yet to be defined by either the FCC or the Michigan PSC. Ameritech's competitors say they must be able to transport their traffic over its facilities; Ameritech disagrees and says two rivals can share facilities that one of them has bought from Ameritech, Schneidewind said.

Finally, Ameritech must satisfy 911 requirements. Ameritech provides rivals with access to 911 services but needs to improve the accuracy of its records, the PSC ruled. Ameritech will fix this problem by the FCC deadline, a company spokesman said.