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AT&T planning to offer local phone service in 35 states

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 September 2003, 06:00 CDT

AT&T plans to sell local phone service in a slew of new markets by the end of the year, the company said Monday.

The Bedminister-based giant said new regulations handed out last month by the Federal Communications Commission mean it will enter local phone markets in 35 states by year's end. That's an increase over AT&T's prior predictions to sell local service in 22 states by Dec. 31.

AT&T said it will be testing or deploying service in the new markets. Bob Nersesian, a spokesman, would not provide further details.

AT&T, the nation's largest long-distance provider, began selling local phone service in New Jersey and competing against the dominant local phone company, Verizon, about a year ago. AT&T had been moving into other states slowly as the FCC worked to hammer out new rules on local phone service. Those rules essentially kept intact regulations that require Verizon to lease its network parts at a deep discount to companies such as AT&T and other Verizon rivals.

"When the FCC issued their [rules] it was definitely a positive sign that we needed to make this commitment," said Nersesian.

Verizon and other local phone companies are challenging the rules in court.

AT&T serves more than 3 million local customers in 13 states including New Jersey. The company says the rules enable it to offer a combination of local and long-distance service to customers at a competitive price.

After the first major rewriting of the nation's telecommunications rules in 1996, Verizon began entering the long- distance business on a state-by-state basis and last year became the nation's third-largest long-distance provider. AT&T, with $37 billion in revenue, has about 40 million residential customers and 4 million business customers.

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