Long-distance companies want FCC to reconsider SBC-Ameritech merger

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Major long-distance companies want federal regulators either to reject outright the proposed merger between SBC Communications and Ameritech Corp., which would create the nation's largest local phone company, or rewrite the conditions for it to take place.

In a letter Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission, MCI, Sprint and AT&T called the deal bad for competition and urged the FCC staff to reconsider the conditions they tentatively approved last month.

"The commission should discard the carefully crafted sleeves-off- the-monopoly-vest commitments proposed by SBC and Ameritech," the carriers wrote. Two industry groups, the Competitive Telecommunications Association and the Telecommunications Resellers Association, also signed the letter.

The carriers took aim at the concessions SBC and Ameritech offered to reassure federal regulators that the deal wouldn't harm competition.

"We are taking a close look at the comments," an FCC spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The two companies issued a joint response, rebuking the claims of the long-distance carriers and saying the deal would benefit consumers.

"Opposition to the proposed SBC-Ameritech merger conditions is a last-minute attempt by AT&T and other competitors to try to stop a merger that is good for consumers and good for the nation," the companies said. "These companies are going to oppose the merger for as long as they think they can use the regulatory process to delay having to face SBC in the marketplace."

The states involved in the proposed merger are Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Copyright 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.