For Immediate Release
October 25, 2000

Washington, D.C., – The Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel), the leading industry association of competitive telecommunications carriers and their suppliers, today hailed the decision rendered by Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court which upholds the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission's (PUC) ruling that will help open Pennsylvania's telecommunications markets to competition and prevent Verizon from engaging in anticompetitive behavior.

Specifically, the Commonwealth Court unanimously upheld the PUC's September 1999 Global Settlement Order, which took several key steps toward promoting competition in Pennsylvania, including adopting a requirement that Verizon separate its wholesale and retail operations in Pennsylvania. The court also affirmed the PUC's access charge reductions, and it upheld the PUC's classification of calls to Internet service providers as local calls. Finally, the court affirmed the PUC's prescribed prices that Verizon can charge competitors to lease unbundled network elements (UNEs) - elements that are critical for offering consumers competitive local exchange services.

"CompTel and its member companies are delighted with today's court decision and hope that other states adopt, in particular, a requirement that incumbent LECs structurally separate their wholesale and retail operations," said H. Russell Frisby, Jr., the association's president. "Structural separation of Verizon's and other ILECs' wholesale and retail units is essential to ensuring that local competition can develop and that competitors can provide consumers with the kinds of choices that were envisioned by the architects of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. "

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Media representatives are encouraged to sign up today to attend CompTel's 20th Anniversary Celebration and Annual Convention & Trade Expo at the Marriott World Center in Orlando, Florida, February 18 - 21, 2001. For more information and press credentials, contact Pam Small or Kathleen Franklin at 202/296-6650.

Based in Washington, DC, CompTel is the leading trade association representing more than 300 U.S. and international competitive communications firms and their suppliers who offer a variety of local, domestic and international long distance, Internet and wireless services. The association's members include global and national firms, regional carriers and emerging local competitive companies.