Justice Department: Verizon application still lacking

(Telephony) The Department of Justice has advised the FCC that it continues to have concerns about Verizon’s pending application to provide long distance service in Massachusetts.

The department determined that Verizon had not yet demonstrated it was providing nondiscriminatory access to DSL lines to companies that are offering DSL service in Massachusetts in competition with Verizon.

At issue are factual disputes regarding the validity of new evidence submitted by Verizon aimed at satisfying the department’s competition concerns. Specifically, the department found that the evidence still indicated that the access provided by Verizon to its competitors was worse in several aspects than the access the company provides to its own retail operations.

“Ensuring that competitors have nondiscriminatory access to DSL lines is important to the development of competition in broadband services,” said John M. Nannes, acting assistant attorney general in charge of the department’s antitrust division, in a statement.

However, the department did note that, despite its continuing concerns, this application was an improvement over Verizon’s previous application for Massachusetts, which was submitted last September and withdrawn in December.

For its part, Verizon is taking a “half full” attitude toward the department’s advisory.

“They acknowledged … that we have made improvements in our performance, but they raised concerns over some of the individual measurements that we use on DSL,” said a company spokeswoman.

“However … they [also] urged the FCC to look at the full record in the state before making its decision. We’re confident that once the FCC does that, they’ll see that Massachusetts is one of the most competitive markets in the country and that our application is in the public interest.”

Nevertheless, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires the FCC to give “substantial weight” to any Justice Department assessment of competitive conditions when considering an application such as the one filed by Verizon for Massachusetts.

A final decision on this application is due from the FCC no later than April 16, 2001.