Bell company structural separation may come to head in Pa. today ...

that it ordered in Sept. 1999. Meanwhile, AT&T formally asked Fla. PSC Wed. to require full structural separation of BellSouth. In Pa., today’s order will open latest round of fight between PUC and Verizon. In attempt to promote development of effective local competition, PUC is expected to issue plan for complete wholesale-retail split, and not just for data business as Verizon had proposed. Verizon has asked Pa. Supreme Court for expedited hearing of its appeal of PUC separation order that contends agency’s action is unnecessary regulatory step because local competition already is thriving and is illegal overreaching of PUC’s authority under both state law and federal Telecom Act. On eve of PUC decision, ALTS urged PUC to “do the right thing for competition” and split Verizon apart, producing wholesale unit with incentives to treat all retail telecom providers equally. In Fla., AT&T told PSC separation was essential to fulfill Telecom Act’s promise of local competition. AT&T said BellSouth still controlled 93% of access lines in its territory and had kept up barriers to local entry that had helped force many of its rivals to brink of collapse. Besides setting up separate retail and wholesale business units, AT&T asked PSC to impose strict code of conduct to govern relations between BellSouth’s retail and wholesale arms. AT&T called structural separation “the only route to bringing about robust local competition and true choice” for Fla. consumers. BellSouth said separation was “unnecessary and wasteful.” It said competition is thriving, with 160 CLECs in state that collectively have taken 20% of BellSouth’s business customers. Telco said AT&T was abusing regulatory process to delay BellSouth’s long distance entry and hobble telco once it received long distance authority.