Ill. CLEC group said statement by Qwest CEO Richard Notebaert tha...
Ill. CLEC group said statement by Qwest CEO Richard Notebaert that he considered it “fundamentally wrong” for Qwest to compete in local markets of Ameritech, which he headed until Ameritech merged with SBC in 1999, indicated there might be…
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collusion between Bell companies to thwart competition. Notebaert said competing for Ameritech’s residential customers “might be a good way to turn a quick dollar but that doesn’t make it right.” His statement, quoted in Ill. news media, came as Qwest announced 3rd- quarter loss of $214 million and 13% fall in revenue, to $3.8 billion from $4.37 billion year earlier. Notebaert said expanding into new local service markets in other regions wasn’t good strategy. He also sided with SBC in opposition to unbundled network element platforms (UNE-Ps) because of pricing he called “nuts.” Notebaert said Qwest provided competitive data and long distance service to large businesses in Chicago area but had no plans to offer local service to small businesses or residential customers. In response, Ill. Coalition for Competitive Telecom called Notebaert’s comments “evidence of potential collusion among regional Bell phone monopolies to not compete against one another and kill off potential competitors in local phone service.” CLEC group said remarks indicated Bells’ strategy was to divide country into local phone “fiefdoms,” not compete against each other, and devote their collective efforts to “eliminating would-be competitors in local service.”