THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100004
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
Regarding ``Calling for choice and competition in the telephone market'' (Another View, Oct. 31) by Laura Giadone, director of sales in Virginia for MCI Business Markets: Bell Atlantic wholeheartedly endorses the concept of competition in the local telephone exchange, so long as that competition is fair. All we ask is fairness; that all players abide by the same rules. MCI's approach to competition would tilt the playing field clearly in its direction - one set of rules for itself and another set for Bell Atlantic.
Ms. Giadone does not mention that the Big Three cartel of MCI, Sprint and AT&T has already cornered more than 80 percent of the nation's long-distance business and is grappling for even more. Its high-priced lawyers and lobbyists scurry about the halls of Congress trying to shut local phone companies out of the long-distance business. how can a company like MCI extol the virtues of competition and free enterprise, while simultaneously erecting barricades that would stifle market entry?
If MCI wants to compete with us in the local market, so be it. But let's also allow the local phone companies of America to compete in the long-distance market.
After all, fair is fair, right?
PAUL T. MILLER JR., manager
Media relations
Bell Atlantic
Richmond, Nov. 3, 1994 by CNB