Hundt questions interconnection deals

Interconnection agreements with small competitors like Jones Intercable or MFS may not be enough to get a Bell regional holding company into the long-distance market, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt said last week.

"The only significant interconnection arrangement is one between AT&T or MCI and one of the Bells that covers all points of the checklist, and we haven't seen one yet," he said.

Hundt's comments sparked an angry response from United States Telephone Association President and Chief Executive Officer Roy Neel, who said the remark "diminishes the significance" of recently-signed interconnection agreements."

"Surely the Chairman does not believe that AT&T and MCI should be preordained as the only companies capable of delivering competition," Neel said in a prepared statement.

However, interconnection negotiations between the two large interexchange carriers and RHCs have not been going smoothly. AT&T asked regulators in eight western states to mediate or participate in interconnection talks with

U S West, while both MCI and Ameritech have asked regulators in the Midwest to mediate interconnection discussions.