ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Encouraged by the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) move to open local telephone markets, MCI (Nasdaq: MCIC) today announced plans to bring facilities-based local service to Orlando, Fla., by the beginning of next year.
MCI said it will reach business customers through a sophisticated, fiber- optic network and state-of-the-art digital switching installed in the downtown Orlando, Fla., area. Additionally, MCI will resell BellSouth service to business and residential customers. Later, MCI will expand local service by leasing pieces of BellSouth's monopoly network to directly connect MCI customers to MCI facilities.
By the beginning of next year, MCI will offer local service in 25 cities. In addition to Orlando, Fla., MCI soon will launch new local initiatives in Denver, Los Angeles, Memphis, Tenn., Miami, Minneapolis, Newark, N.J., Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Raleigh, N.C., San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa, Fla. The company already offers service in 12 cities.
"MCI will have a state-of-the-art, switched local network up and running in Orlando by early next year," said Garrett M. Bender, vice president, MCI Sales and Services, Southeast region. "That will mean real savings for customers who for years could only get local telephone service from one company.
"Competition in the local telephone market will mean lower prices, more choices and better quality service. Florida customers now can say, 'This phone line is my line. I paid for it. And I can connect it to the communications company that I choose,'" Bender said.
"MCI is committed to providing local service throughout Florida by building its own facilities, partnering with others to build, leasing network elements from existing monopoly carriers, and reselling service," Bender said.
Regulatory Hurdles Remain Before Competition Can Reach All Customers
Despite MCI's new offerings, many state and federal regulatory hurdles remain before the full benefits of competition can come to business and residential customers throughout Florida, Bender said.
State regulators must now carefully implement and vigorously enforce the broad national rules for local competition announced August 8 by the FCC.
Specifically, Chip Casteel, MCI regional policy executive, said that Florida regulators must take the following steps to bring competition in telecommunications to businesses and homes throughout the state:
-- Act quickly on arbitration requests that MCI and other new entrants are filing against the local Bell monopoly when the parties are unable to resolve interconnection terms and resale discount rates.
-- Establish prices for network elements based on their direct economic cost.
-- Provide vigilant oversight against local monopoly's anti-competitive practices.
-- Continue state's efforts to create an environment that promotes investment and development of services.
MCI first offered competitive long distance service to business and residential customers in Florida in 1982.
MCI employees work in 17 facilities throughout the state, including operations in Orlando, Daytona Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Melbourne, Miami, Pensacola, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Tampa and West Palm Beach.
MCI, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's largest and fastest growing diversified communications companies. With annual revenue of more than $15 billion, MCI offers consumers and businesses a broad portfolio of services including long distance, wireless, local, paging, messaging, Internet, information services, outsourcing, and advanced global communications.
MCI Local Service: Around the World, Around the Corner
MCI is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to lay the fiber-optic lines and install the switches that will bring competitive local service to markets throughout the country. These facilities will enable MCI to offer local service on one of the most sophisticated and reliable networks ever built, backed by 24-hour customer service.
MCI already offers local switched service in 12 cities, and by the end of the year will have invested close to $1 billion in local network construction. The company is prepared to invest a like amount in 1997, if regulators create the right competitive environment.
MCI local service is now available in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Hartford, Conn., Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Seattle.
By the beginning of 1997, the total markets served will expand to 25 cities in 20 states, covering more than 45 percent of the business customers in the United States.
MCI is providing business customers with the full range of flexible local trunk services. The company offers local lines with all of the most widely used features, including call forwarding, call waiting, speed calling, conference calling and a variety of voice messaging services.
Eventually, with the right regulatory decisions, MCI plans to offer residential as well as business customers high-speed, high-bandwidth services at prices far below those available from competitors.
These new products, delivered through MCI switches and lines leased from the Bell monopolies, will give customers a wealth of new choices and new services.
For example, the MCI intelligent network could enable customers to explore the Internet with dedicated, affordable high-speed connections; create their own private voice networks for friends and family; take advantage of virtual mailboxes to store both voice and video messages; and use their telephone and fax machines over the same line at the same time.
Switches are critical to MCI's local service plans because they enable the company to offer its own value-added services and not mimic the services provided by the incumbent Bell monopoly.
At first, the fiber networks and switches primarily will serve business customers. When regulators set reasonable prices allowing MCI to affordably lease pieces of the local monopoly network, MCI will extend its service through leased lines and loops to customers whose businesses or homes are beyond the reach of MCI's own local network.
"Switching, combined with leasing network elements from the existing monopolies, will allow us to extend our intelligent network all the way to the customer. And that gives us the ability to package services and customize products for consumers. That's why getting these rules right is critical if more businesses and consumers are to benefit from competition," said Timothy F. Price, president of MCI Telecommunications.
The Federal Communications Commission earlier this month issued its long- awaited order setting out the rules under which the RBOCs must open up their monopoly networks to competition. The commission issued the rules as part of a wide-ranging plan to open local telecommunications markets to competition mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed last February by President Clinton.
The Commission set broad national rules that state regulatory agencies must follow in setting prices for leased network elements and for resale of existing RBOC services.
Specifically, the commission said states must set wholesale discounts for reselling monopoly services in a range of no less than 17 to 25 percent off retail, and they must base prices for leased network elements on actual economic cost.
SOURCE MCI Communications
-0- 8/27/96
/NOTE TO EDITORS: A satellite feed to announce the expansion of MCI's local service, which includes comments from MCI Telecommunications President Tim Price, will be available on Tuesday, August 27.
Following are the coordinates (all times Eastern):
-- 10:00-10:15 a.m. C Band/Galaxy 9/Transponder 1
-- 2:00-2:15 p.m. C Band/Galaxy 4/Transponder 7 -- 5:00-5:15 p.m. C Band/Galaxy 9/Transponder 1
Audio for all three feeds is on 6.2 & 6.8./
/CONTACT: Steve Fox for MCI Communications, 800-644-NEWS (6397)/
(MCIC)
CO: MCI Communications ST: Florida, District of Columbia IN: TLS SU: PDT
WW-SR -- NYTU032 -- 0830 08/27/96 09:16 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com
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