Competitive Service Providers and Consumers Urge FCC to Stop Clock and Combine Review of Telecom Mega-Mergers SBC and Verizon Are 'Gaming' Review Process With Incomplete Filings and Omissions WASHINGTON, May 25 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of leading competitive telecommunications companies and IT solutions providers who are members of the Alliance for Competition in Telecommunications (ACTel) today joined with national consumer groups urging the Federal Communications Commission to "stop the clock" and combine the SBC-AT&T and Verizon-MCI merger reviews. In a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, the ACTel members charged SBC and Verizon with "railroading" the FCC's review process and denying both the Commission and the public access to vital information necessary for full review and debate of the mergers. Companies calling on the FCC to "stop the clock" and consolidate its merger review included Cbeyond Communications, Eschelon Telecom, SAVVIS, TDS Metrocom, and XO Communications. Consumers Union and Consumer Federation of America have also expressed support for this action and intend to file letters later this week with the FCC. Opponents of the current merger review schedule urged the FCC to take two steps: * Stop the Clock and Build a More Comprehensive Record of Merger Data. The FCC should recognize that the filings and responses of SBC and Verizon as submitted were materially incomplete. Parties to the merger review, including the FCC, must be able to ascertain that all data, which in the case of SBC/AT&T was submitted approximately six weeks after their initial application, is verifiably responsive to the FCC's data request and supports the applicants' claims of meeting the public interest standard. * Consolidate Review of Parallel Mergers. The FCC should take into account the interrelated nature of both the SBC-AT&T and Verizon-MCI proposed mergers. A combined review of the two mergers is essential, to eliminate redundancies and assess their combined impact on businesses and consumers. "The FCC's informal 180-day merger cycle already is simply inadequate for reviewing two interrelated transactions of this magnitude, particularly when the merging companies have not supplied all information with their initial applications that are necessary for a thorough review," said Heather Gold, XO Communications' senior vice president, government relations. "The current clock puts artificial constraints on the review process, complicates the ability of the Commission and third parties to do their job, and sends misleading signals to other federal and state agencies now engaged in their own merger reviews. Stopping the clock in order to ascertain that both the applications are complete will allow for a more meaningful and complete review." The opponents stressed that separate review of each proposed merger overlooks the full impact of combining the nation's two largest incumbent local telephone providers and two largest long distance companies -- an unprecedented concentration of market power that will ultimately affect four out of every five U.S. customers. Efforts to assess the full impact of the mergers are hampered by numerous problems encountered when trying to access data from SBC and AT&T for analysis: * Multiple Locations. Filings are being held in three separate law firms in Washington. * Limited Access. Entry for review purposes is restricted to 2 - 5 hours. * Noncompliance with FCC's Information Request. The documents are organized according to the name of their custodian, rather than by reference to the points or Exhibits in the Applications that the document is supposed to support, as required by the FCC. * Missing Documents. One law firm, Crowell & Moring, houses more than 165 boxes of SBC documents prepared in response to the FCC's April 18 "Initial Information and Document Request." Vital related documents provided by AT&T are not held at Crowell & Moring at all. * Photocopying Prohibited. The filings constitute hundreds of hard copy pages. Analysts may not photocopy any documents for review off-site, and are restricted to taking notes by hand or on their computers. To view the ACTel "Stop the Clock" letter to FCC Chairman Martin, please go to http://www.allianceforcompetition.com/ About ACTel The Alliance for Competition in Telecommunications (ACTel) represents leading providers of competitive communications services and IT solution providers that have joined together to challenge the mergers of SBC-AT&T and Verizon-MCI, which if consummated as proposed will create significant harms to the public interest -- reducing choice, elevating costs to customers, and slowing innovation. Information on ACTel is available at http://www.allianceforcompetition.com/ DATASOURCE: Alliance for Competition in Telecommunications CONTACT: Jim Crawford of Crawford Public Relations, T: +1-703-753-4480, M: +1-703-568-7101, or , for ACTel Web site: http://www.allianceforcompetition.com/

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