Keep the faith AT&T chief says real local competition is coming >BY BETH SNYDER, Switching & Transmission Editor

Just three days before the Telecommunications Reform Act's one-year anniversary, President Clinton told Americans that every home needs access to electronic information. Earlier that same day, AT&T Chief Executive Officer Robert Allen promised that the day is coming when all service providers will have free access to the local loop as well as the means to deliver that information.

Although the real competition promised by the telecom act has been slow to market, it is coming, Allen told the National Press Club in Washington. "We Americans tend to be impatient people," he said. "This is an act of Congress, not an act of God. We're not going to see total competition in a blinding flash.

Allen blamed-although he said he understood-the reluctance of the Bell regional holding companies to open their local loops to competition. The RHCs should be held to the telecom act proviso of proving real competition before being allowed into the long-distance market, he said.

"The evidence of growing monopoly appetite is out there right now," he said. "You can see a living, breathing example of expanding monopoly in what's happening with GTE.

He criticized the LECs for what he termed "circling the wagons and protecting even bigger monopolies." Speaking as a non-neutral observer, he pledged that if and when AT&T is allowed to offer local service throughout the country on its own terms, the interexchange carrier will offer prices no greater and probably less than what customers now pay.

Allen also called on the Federal Communications Commission to look at and lessen access charges that IXCs and others pay the RHCs to use their local loops. AT&T will pass those savings to its customers, he said.

Interexchange carriers selling local landline service AT&T The IXC started offering residential service in Sacramento, Calif., on Dec. 9, 1996, and business service in Pac Bell's territory on Feb. 3, both via resale with Pac Bell. AT&T plans to add residential and business service in Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois and Michigan by the end of June via resale with SNET, BellSouth and Ameritech, respectively. It plans to eventually use unbundled elements from RHCs and other providers, with a long-range goal of building its own local networks, as announced in Chicago. It also is providing local outbound service to medium and large business customers with dedicated digital links in 35 states and is expanding to 45 states by the end of February.

MCI The carrier that first challenged AT&T offers business service over its own facilities in 19 cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Seattle, and it plans to expand to 31 cities by the end of the year. It provides residential service via resale throughout Pac Bell's territory and plans to do the same in Illinois and New York sometime this year. MCI also offers business service via resale in SNET's territory.

Sprint Sprint provides residential and business service in parts of 19 states over its own network as the incumbent provider. The IXC also offers residential and business service in San Diego and Santa Barbara, Calif., on a resale basis through Pac Bell and GTE. It is approved to provide residential and business service in 25 states through a combination of resale and facilities-based service as a competitive local exchange carrier and has filed in 23 more states.

Local exchange carriers selling out-of-region long-distance Nynex Nynex offers business and residential service in 23 states through a resale agreement with Sprint and has been approved to provide business and residential in four other states through resale. It has applied in eight more states and is awaiting approval. Bell Atlantic Nynex's proposed merger partner is marketing business and residential long-distance in Michigan, North Carolina and Texas through a resale agreement with Sprint. It has been approved to provide business and residential long-distance in 14 other states and has applied in five more states, awaiting approval. Ameritech Ameritech has been approved in 42 states and plans resale through WorldCom. U S West U S West has been approved in eight states through resale arrangements, not yet announced, and has applied in 22 other states, awaiting approval. Pacific Bell Pac Bell intends to provide long-distance through a reseller. Southwestern Bell This Bell company provides residential and business service through unidentified resellers in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Washington, upstate New York and central Illinois. BellSouth BellSouth intends to concentrate on its nine-state region. GTE This Independent carrier offers service in all 50 states via resale through WorldCom.