FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1996                             (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

         JUSTICE DEPARTMENT URGES FCC TO TAKE BOLD STEPS
              TO PROMOTE LOCAL TELEPHONE COMPETITION

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice filed comments
today with the Federal Communications Commission urging the
agency to take bold steps to promote local telephone competition
throughout the U.S. by establishing clear national rules on
interconnection and access to local telephone company networks
and ensuring that competitors will be charged reasonable prices
for both.
     The Department's Antitrust Division filed the comments as
part of the FCC's rulemaking process to implement provisions of
the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which requires local telephone
companies to make their facilities and services available to new
competitors so that those competitors can enter monopoly
telephone markets.  
     Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Department's Antitrust Division, said, "Consumers want to see
the lower prices and better services that local telephone
competition can bring.  We urge the FCC to act to ensure that
this competition will develop quickly, as they implement the new
Telecommunications Act."
     The Department urged the FCC to:
       Establish clear national rules governing the basic
prerequisites for successful entry by local competitors.
       Ensure that entrants would have access to all
technically feasible points of interconnection with local
telephone company networks, and all technically feasible elements
of the networks.
       Ensure that access to interconnection and network
elements is available at economically reasonable prices.
       Avoid subjecting new entrants to unnecessary regulatory
restrictions.
       Move quickly, with the states, to develop new approaches
for ensuring universal service in a competitive environment.     
     "Competition in telecommunications in the past decade has
produced enormous benefits for American consumers," said
Bingaman.  "However, consumers still don't have choices when they
buy their local telephone service.  It's time to give them a
choice."
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