Word: sbc
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...major players have appeared more eager to make love than war. The marriage of Northeastern neighbors NYNEX (1996 revenues: $13.5 billion) and Bell Atlantic ($13.1 billion) awaits final government approval, while Southwestern titan SBC Communications has hooked up with Pacific Bell in California to create a $23.5 billion MegaBell. And in perhaps the worst-kept secret in Big Business history, AT&T ($52.2 billion) tried to buy the bulked-up SBC in a deal that went dead last month over disagreements between the companies and the hostility of regulators...
...fact, AT&T's fumbling grab for SBC--which the company has never admitted making--reflected the frustration of even the largest long-distance carrier in trying to break into local calling. AT&T, which holds a 53% share of the long-distance market, has vowed to provide local service in all 50 states and to seize at least a third of the market in five to 10 years. But AT&T today offers local calling to households in parts of just six states (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, New York and Georgia), and will be in no more than...
...Golden State. New MCI subscribers have experienced similar delays. Jonathan Sallet, MCI's chief policy counsel, says PacBell takes an average of three weeks to switch on MCI customers in California, although PacBell switches on its own clients in seven days. Replies a spokesman for PacBell parent SBC: "We have spent $1.2 billion to fulfill our obligation to open our networks. You'd be hard-pressed to find another company that has committed so many resources to helping competitors take its customers...
...SBC and its sister Bells say the real problem is that AT&T and MCI do not want to get into the local market, because to do so would free the Bells to compete in the long-distance domain. Says Jim Ellis, SBC's general counsel: "We can bring them [the long-distance companies] to water, but we can't make them drink." Retorts Dan Schulman, AT&T's vice president for local marketing: "To say that we're not interested in moving into local residential service could not be farther from the truth...
...biggest roadblocks to full competition may be the Telecommunications Act itself. To qualify for the long-distance game, the Bells have to demonstrate that their home markets are open to competition. How? By fulfilling 14 separate terms of compliance. So far, none has. When regulators rejected SBC's application to provide long-distance service in Oklahoma last month, the company filed a suit charging that the law unfairly discriminates against the Bells. "If the FCC would go ahead and let us into the long-distance business, that would stir competition [in local service] faster than anything," says Roger Flynt...