Alaska State Legislature
News from the Office of Representative Pete Kelly

Representative Pete Kelly
State Capital, Room 411
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
ph: (907) 465-2327 fax: (907) 465-5241
web site: www.akrepublicans.org/KellyP.htm

Local Phone Competition Across Alaska Telecommunications Legislation

For Immediate Release: February 16, 1998 Contact Representative Pete Kelly at (907) 465-2327.

Juneau -- Representative Pete Kelly introduced a bill requiring the Alaska Public Utilities Commission (APUC) to adopt regulations allowing full telephone competition by December 31, 1998.

"History has proven competition gives consumers lower costs, increased technology and more choices," said Kelly. "I can't see anything wrong with those outcomes."

Kelly's legislation requires APUC to quickly adopt regulations permitting local phone competition and will allow new entrants to serve customers across Alaska.

"This will bring benefits to both rural and urban users," Kelly continued. "The fears that promoted the APUC to delay full competition in Fairbanks and Juneau are the same fears that caused the APUC to delay long distance competition in Alaska for many years. As we have all seen, those fears were unfounded and long distance competition produced better quality, new services and lower prices for consumers throughout the state."

Background:

In 1996, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act allowing and promoting local telephone competition nationwide. The APUC recently exempted the local phone company in Fairbanks and Juneau from full local competition because of fears that competition might harm the existing phone company (PTI). PTI was purchased last year by Century Telephone, which has its headquarters in Louisiana. The purchase of PTI made Century the 10th largest phone company in the United States.

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