"Our review of the record and underlying comments in the Federal Communications Commission's proceeding on Bell Atlantic-New York's Section 271 application and the Commission's recently released UNE Remand Order affirms our earlier conclusion that it is imperative that the FCC adopt its own comprehensive, remedial process to ensure against backsliding once BA-NY has demonstrated compliance with the Section 271 competitive checklist," said H. Russell Frisby, Jr., CompTel's President.

CompTel already has warned the New York Public Service Commission that BA-NY's Performance Assurance Plan ("PAP") remains inadequate to ensure that BA-NY is satisfying the nondiscrimination requirements of Sections 251 and 271 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In comments filed last month with the New York PSC, CompTel stated that the modified PAP will not ensure that BA-NY is providing competitors with access to unbundled network elements ("UNEs"), interconnection, collocation, and services for resale that is at parity with the access that BA-NY provides to itself and its affiliates. The proposed PAP also fails to incorporate in its performance remedies elements that CompTel has demonstrated must be included in any performance assurance plan, CompTel stated, adding that the proposed PAP would not give BA-NY an adequate incentive to comply with its obligations under the New York Commission's orders, the FCC's orders, or the 1996 Act.

"The Commission's UNE Remand Order, the text of which was released this past Friday, only serves to confirm CompTel's position that many of BA-NY's practices regarding the offer and provision of UNEs and UNE combinations do not currently pass muster under the Commission's rules," said Frisby. "Moreover, the Department of Justice, in its Evaluation filed last week, echoed CompTel's concerns over compliance with the Competitive Checklist of Section 271, and expressed similar concerns that the New York PAP was not likely to be an effective deterrent for the prevention of backsliding. CompTel continues to support the FCC's legal authority to adopt its own, more comprehensive, plan as a condition to Section 271 approval, once BA-NY can demonstate acceptable compliance with the Act."