N.J. Ratepayer Advocate urged state regulators to deny Verizon’s ...
N.J. Ratepayer Advocate urged state regulators to deny Verizon’s request for agency’s interLATA long distance entry endorsement because residential local competition was just about nonexistent in Verizon’s territory. Ratepayer Advocate Blossom Peretz spoke as N.J. Board of Public Utilities…
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(BPU) opened hearings on Verizon’s Sept. 6 filing that claimed full compliance with Sec. 271’s 14-point open local market checklist and asked for BPU’s support. Peretz said Verizon by its own admission had 99.99% of residential local market in its territory, which translated to only about 300 residential customers out of 4 million that use local carrier other than Verizon. Peretz said only one CLEC in state courted residential customers, but not in Verizon’s territory. Rest, she said, don’t offer basic residential service. WorldCom representatives said Verizon’s local exchanges simply weren’t irreversibly open to competition as FCC required. WorldCom said most CLECs holding N.J. certificates weren’t actively providing service and most numbers they controlled hadn’t been assigned to customers. Verizon replied that Telecom Act requirements weren’t about market share of competitors or about their “poorly devised” business plans or other “extraneous issues” raised by opponents. Key issue, Verizon said, is whether it has eliminated barriers to local competition, which it said it had. It said KPMG Consulting’s favorable report on its N.J. operation support systems (OSS) illustrated that its markets were open to competitive entry. Verizon also said record in other states with Bell long distance service showed customers in both local and long distance markets had seen lower prices and more choices. Verizon said its long distance entry would be “great catalyst” for competition, not inhibitor to it.