Action on SWBT expected soon

Missouri's Public Service Commission has yet to take action on Southwestern Bell's move to enter the long-distance market in Missouri, although according to PSC spokesman Kevin Kelly, a procedural schedule could be published some time in the next two weeks.

"That's a big case file to review," Kelly said. "Southwestern Bell's latest filing contained more than 30,000 pages."

The June 28 application was an update of Bell's original application. Filed in November 1998, it was later withdrawn so the company could focus on an application to enter the long distance market in Texas. The approval of Bell's Texas application by the Federal Communications Commission earlier this month was only the second time a regional Bell telephone company had received permission to provide long-distance service to its customers. The first was Bell Atlantic in New York.

Bell's application included a request that all parties be allowed 30 days to submit comments. Kelly said once those comments had been received, the PSC would begin its review of the package.

Once under way, the PSC will have 120 days to complete that review. If it approves, the FCC will have 90 days to make a ruling.

"Our charge is to thoroughly review the application and make a recommendation to the FCC," he said. The federal Telecommunication Act of 1996 allowed Bell to provide long distance service in Missouri if those markets were opened to significant competition and the company's infrastructure was capable of handling the volume of orders for service, said Southwestern Bell spokesman Mike Peterson.

"We believe there is significant competition," Peterson said. "In Missouri, the PSC has certified 133 companies to provide local service. A number of those companies are still getting ready, but 47 of them are passing orders and actively competing with Southwestern Bell."

Kelly said an annual report by the PSC indicated that 61 companies had completed the three-step process to provide basic local telephone service in Missouri and that those companies served 151,466 access lines, approximately 4 percent of the total access lines in Missouri.

Kelly said as of July 1 last year, Southwestern Bell controlled 2,534,994 out of a total of 3,479,197 access lines in Missouri.

Competitors such as McLeod USA feel that Bell has erected roadblocks to effective competition in the past and that approval of its application at this time would be premature.

"Our view is that certain things need to change," said Brad Kruse, associate general counsel for McLeod USA. "We feel that the competitive environment needs to be better in Missouri before Southwestern Bell should be given approval to do long distance service."

Kruse said McLeod USA does not offer any services in Texas and was not involved in the proceedings conducted by Texas regulators. It did, he added, monitor the proceedings there very closely.

"We would hope that Missouri will take a hard look at whether Southwestern Bell has met the requirements in the Telecommunications Act whether there is true competition in Missouri," Kruse said. "We hope they don't look at the Texas decision and just rubber stamp it, but make their own thorough and independent investigation into the state of competition in Missouri."

In making its recommendation concerning the application, the commission will look to see if Southwestern Bell has met all the items on a 14-point checklist identified in federal telecommunication statutes, said John Van Eschen, manager of the PSC's telecommunication department.

"Whether or not a particular Bell company has met a checklist item is something that has been clarified over time," Van Eschen said.

"Early on, there were some people who thought that to demonstrate that there were companies out there might be sufficient to meet a checklist item. But it's more stringent than that," he added.

In an effort to ensure the equipment Bell uses in its five-state service area had the ability to process service and repair orders, the Texas Public Utilities Commission conducted a 22-month review.

Van Eschen said he anticipated that the study, which allowed the Texas commission, and ultimately the FCC, to feel Bell had met its burden of proof would come through for the Missouri PSC's review.

"Independent auditors, Ernst & Young, have been selected to review the study done by Telecordia in Texas," Van Eschen said. "The task they've been given is to validate the data put together in support of Southwestern Bell's operational support system."

Van Eschen said the bottom line is that sometimes it's not very clear what it takes to actually meet some of the checklist items.

"This process is somewhat contentious," he said. "And why it's so difficult for a state commission to pursue."