ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140067
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Bell Atlantic Corp., the first of the Baby Bells to jump into the long-distance fray, is seeking to provide the service in five states, company officials said Tuesday.
The action comes less than a week after President Clinton signed legislation overhauling the nation's telecommunications laws and letting local and long-distance phone companies and cable companies enter each others' businesses.
Bell Atlantic filed applications to provide service in North and South Carolina, Florida, Illinois and Texas - states in which it does not provide local phone service. Those applications must be approved by state regulators.
The company said the action is the beginning of a larger plan to provide long-distance service nationwide.
Shirley Risoldi, a Bell Atlantic spokeswoman, said she expected regulatory approval in all of the states and predicted that the phone company would be providing service by the end of June.
``Welcome to the fray,'' said AT&T spokesman Herb Linnen.
Sprint spokeswoman Sydney Shaw said Bell Atlantic is "going to learn a lot.''
The company plans to market service to both residential and business customers.
BellSouth and Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., which provide local phone service to some of the states Bell Atlantic is targeting, contend that Bell Atlantic will face considerable obstacles in reaching new customers.
``You've got to know your customer,'' and Bell Atantic doesn't in Florida or the Carolinas, said BellSouth spokesman John Schneidawind.
To provide service, Bell Atlantic plans to buy long-distance service from a company that owns its telecommunications network - for instance, AT&T, MCI and Sprint - at a wholesale rate and re-sell long-distance service to consumers and businesses at retail rates, Bell Atlantic said.
Bell Atlantic has 12 million customers receiving local phone service in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
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