SBC officials say Oklahoma market should be open to Southwestern Bell long-distance

Monday, December 11th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Officials for Southwestern Bell's parent company say it should be allowed to offer long-distance in Oklahoma and Kansas because competition there is just as open as it is in Texas, where Southwestern Bell already provides long-distance service.

SBC Communications filed a joint application in October to provide long-distance in Oklahoma and Kansas, but the U.S. Justice Department warned last week that such a move could violate federal laws intended to keep the market competitive.

But SBC official Priscilla Hill-Ardoin said Monday that local markets in both Kansas and Oklahoma are open to competition.

``Competitors wanting to serve customers in Topeka and Tulsa are able to access the same systems and procedures as competitors wanting to serve customers in Tyler, Texas,'' Hill-Ardoin said.

A 1996 telecommunications law laid out a series of steps that Bell companies must take to demonstrate local competition in a state.

SBC met those steps when it began offering long-distance to local customers in Texas, but the Justice Department said more evaluation must be done by regulatory commissions in Oklahoma and Kansas.

Hill-Ardoin said the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and the Kansas Corporation Commission have exhaustively reviewed the issue and that the Justice Department had concerns about only two of more than 120 performance measures that were examined.

The Justice Department noted that many of the prices charged by SBC to lease out phone lines were significantly higher in Oklahoma and Kansas than in Texas.

The prices are considered important because many new local phone companies do not run or have not built their own networks, but rely on phone lines from the Bells to offer competing service.

The department gave its findings to the Federal Communications Commission, which is expected to decide in January whether SBC can offer the long-distance service.

Hill-Ardoin said SBC officials were optimistic about the FCC's coming decision.