Verizon gets OK to provide long distance in Massachusetts

(Telephony) Verizon Communications received approval yesterday from the FCC to begin offering long-distance service in Massachusetts beginning April 26. The Bay State is the second state for which Verizon has won approval. The company received Section 271 approval in New York in December 1999.

“This is very good news for our company, and it’s very good news for consumers,” said Tom Tauke, senior vice president, public policy and external affairs for Verizon.

Tauke said Verizon will file a Section 271 application in Connecticut in the next week. The RBOC expects to complete in the next few weeks a comparability assessment for systems in the remaining New England states to begin the process of filing “me-too” applications in those states this summer, he said.

“We hope to have several of those [applications] for the New England states completed by the end of the year,” Tauke said.

As might be expected, competitive long-distance companies weren’t as pleased by the news. According to David Eisenberg, Sprint’s vice president for state external affairs, consumers in Massachusetts may be getting another choice in long distance but aren’t getting the requisite improvement in local competition.

“I think the FCC decision is premature, and that’s unfortunate,” Eisenberg said. “We think the prices being charged by Verizon in Massachusetts for access to its network are too high, and, when you look at the local market in Massachusetts, it’s inhospitable to competition.

“If you were to ask 100 Massachusetts consumers whether there was someone they could turn to for local phone service other than their friendly local monopoly phone company, someone somewhere might be able to come up with the name of a CLEC, but most would say, ‘Verizon is the only one that I know of,’” he said.

While Sprint groused, the United States Telecom Association (USTA) applauded the FCC’s decision.

“With Verizon offering long distance in Massachusetts, telecommunications customers in that state will have greater choices for all telecom services,” Gary Lytle, USTA interim president and CEO said in a statement. “In New York alone, consumers have seen annual savings of about $220 million since Verizon began offering long distance in the state.”

Verizon expects to hire more than 100 employees to serve its anticipated long-distance customers in Massachusetts, according to the company.