QWEST MOVING TOWARD FIRST SEC. 271 FILING BY LABOR DAY
Regionwide testing of Qwest operation support systems (OSS) began Tues. in 13 of its 14 states. Company officials predicted favorable report from regional test administrator KPMG after testing concludes in July that will allow carrier to file first Sec. 271 interLATA long distance application with FCC before Labor Day and file for rest of its states by next spring. But Qwest gave no clue as to which state would be first and declined to confirm speculation that it would be Colo. or Ariz. Qwest Senior Vp-Law & Policy Steve Davis did indicate that Ariz., along with Neb. and Iowa, would be among early states, with Minn. and S.D. among last.
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Davis said separate OSS testing project in Ariz., begun in Dec. by Cap Gemini/Ernst & Young, also will be completed in July. He said collaborative workshop sessions with PSC staffs and competitors for addressing non-OSS-related 271 compliance issues would be completed “this summer” in all Qwest states except Minn. and S.D., which have yet to schedule any workshops. He said Qwest had participated in 37 such workshops to date, with another 13 sessions scheduled. “We're coming down the home stretch in our effort to get back into the long distance business in our 14-state local service territory,” Davis said. “We're not the first [Bell] to get long distance approval in one of our states, but we expect to be the first one with approval to offer long distance throughout our entire region.”
Davis said Qwest may not ask each state for individual formal declaration of support before filing 271 application, but said no filing would be made in state that wasn’t ready to give its opinion when FCC asked. He said Qwest had been meeting with FCC staffers to discuss how agency would process multiple simultaneous 271 filings.
Responding to questions, Qwest officials declined to project long distance revenue or market share after entry, said none of pending state proceedings related to permanent rates and terms for interconnection and unbundling were likely to deter state 271 filings, and said fines to states and rebates to CLECs that would be required under performance assurance plans to be implemented by each state would be sufficient to ensure against postentry wholesale service backsliding. To ensure smooth processing of CLEC service orders, Davis said Qwest was establishing wholesale service enter in Omaha with 75 employees to manage access to facilities and functions for CLECs that colocated in Qwest central offices.
WorldCom expressed skepticism about Qwest’s optimistic projections, saying it was premature to predict company would pass easily when testing had only just begun. WorldCom said its own past and current experiences with Qwest indicated there still were serious problems for CLECs seeking to compete against incumbent. “We'll see when the final results are in,” WorldCom spokesman said.