MCI WORLDCOM CALLS FOR NEW PROCEEDING ON BELL ATLANTIC-GTE MERGER IN PENNSYLVANIA

Impact of Attorney General's Merger Agreement on Local Phone Competition Forces New Examination

News Bureau Media Relations 800-644-NEWS Investors Scott Hamilton 601-460-4981

HARRISBURG, PA, August 4, 1999 -- MCI WorldCom is calling on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) to order all-new proceedings and/or more fact-finding hearings on Bell Atlantic's proposed merger with GTE. MCI WorldCom's call for additional proceedings follows an announcement last week that Bell Atlantic and GTE had reached an agreement with Attorney General Mike Fisher on several steps the merging companies would take to open Bell Atlantic-Pennsylvania's local telephone monopoly in exchange for merger approval.

"The problem is that the PUC has been trying to address these same local competition issues and more in a series of separate proceedings," said Carl Giesy, MCI WorldCom regional director of public policy. "Now we're forced to ask for further proceedings to find out exactly what Bell Atlantic is committing to do under this merger agreement and how its actions will impact the PUC's ongoing local competition proceedings."

MCI WorldCom told the PUC that the intent of the merger agreement is unclear to the monopoly's rivals.

"If Bell Atlantic is trying to force-feed its local competition policy demands on the PUC under the guise of the merger, then there are problems," Giesy said. "Bell Atlantic can't be allowed to end run all the work the Commission and others have done to bring local competition to Pennsylvania."

The conditions outlined in the merger agreement also fall far short of commitments Bell Atlantic has made to open its monopoly market in other states, namely New York.

"While Bell Atlantic and GTE have touted this agreement as good for consumers and competition, it seems more like an attempt to skirt the law," said Giesy. "They appear to be doing as little as possible to get signoff on an anti-consumer merger and block future local phone competition to boot."

Giesy reiterated MCI WorldCom's position since the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 became the law of the land: "Bell Atlantic and GTE must be forced to open their local phone markets to real competition before this commission, or any regulator, allows them to create an even bigger local monopoly."

In addition, MCI WorldCom warned that Bell Atlantic has a long history of making - and breaking - promises to regulators, competitors and, in turn, Pennsylvania consumers.

"Bell Atlantic made region-wide market opening promises to gain federal regulators' approval of its merger with Nynex, but competitors have never seen the region-wide deployment of critical computer systems they were promised," Giesy said. "Without these systems, competitors can't hope to begin providing local service to residential local customers."

Giesy said Bell Atlantic has also repeatedly broken promises it made to implement the pro-competitive mandates of the Telecom Act and Pennsylvania law, forcing MCI WorldCom and other competitors to turn to the PUC time and time again for enforcement. "Bell Atlantic's history of broken promises should be enough to make the PUC and customers wary of this latest ploy to further protect its statewide local phone monopoly."

Specifically, MCI WorldCom is asking the PUC to:

1. Suspend the current merger briefing schedule while it determines whether to hold additional proceedings.

2. Allow MCI WorldCom and others to request additional information from Bell Atlantic and GTE about the terms of the merger agreement.

3. Allow MCI WorldCom and others to comment on the agreement and, if necessary, hold hearings on the effect of the agreement on the on-going global settlement process.

4. Take any other steps needed to clearly determine how the agreement would impact the companies' local phone monopolies and the positions they have taken so far in the in the global settlement process.

MCI WorldCom is a global leader in communications services with 1998 revenues of more than $30 billion and established operations in over 65 countries encompassing the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions. MCI WorldCom is a premier provider of facilities-based and fully integrated local, long distance, international and Internet services. MCI WorldCom's global networks, including its state-of-the-art pan-European network and transoceanic cable systems, provide end-to-end high-capacity connectivity to more than 40,000 buildings worldwide. MCI WorldCom is traded on NASDAQ under WCOM. For more information on MCI WorldCom, visit the World Wide Web at http://www.wcom.com.

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