SBC’s Local Service Markets in Oklahoma Are Open

The Status of Competition

Background:

On October 26, SBC Communications Inc., the parent company of Southwestern Bell, will file with the Federal Communications Commission for approval to provide long distance service in Oklahoma. Prior to this filing, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission completed a comprehensive, two-year review of Southwestern Bell’s systems, voting unanimously that the company meets the requirements of Section 271 of the 1996 Federal Telecommunications Act, which requires that incumbent local exchange carriers open their local markets to competition before being allowed to compete in the long distance market.

The Facts: *

On a comparative basis, the Oklahoma market is one of the most competitive in the country.

 Competitors are doing business in 94 percent of the wire centers and counties Southwestern Bell serves in Oklahoma.

  • 105 companies have been certified by the OCC to provide local service in Oklahoma.
  • 79 companies have signed interconnection agreements with SWBT, with 46 actively passing orders to Southwestern Bell in Oklahoma.
  • Since January 1, 1997, Southwestern Bell and its competitors in Oklahoma have exchanged more than 847 million minutes of use over interconnection trunks.
  • Close to 1.6 million telephone numbers have been assigned to CLECs in Oklahoma.

Southwestern Bell’s competitors are active in all markets in Oklahoma and are well positioned for further success in the future.

  • CLECs have captured as many as 169,000 access lines in Oklahoma.
  • CLECs currently serve between 5 and 12 percent of the total access lines in Southwestern Bell’s Oklahoma service area.
  • Once currently pending collocation agreements are concluded, facilities-based CLECs will be in position to serve 83 percent of the total access lines and 89 percent of the business lines now served by Southwestern Bell in Oklahoma.
  • 27 facilities-based carriers now are providing service in Oklahoma, 15 of which are providing local voice service.
  • In addition to larger, metropolitan areas, competition is evident in many of Oklahoma’s smaller communities, such as Arcadia (pop. 320) and Tuttle (pop. 2,807).
  • With at least 9 operational switches installed in Oklahoma, CLECs already have sufficient capacity to serve 1.75 million access lines, more than the number currently served by Southwestern Bell.

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Southwestern Bell’s work to open up its markets and enter the long-distance business bolsters competition and benefits consumers.

  • In just the eight months following Southwestern Bell’s application to the FCC to provide long distance in Texas, the number of lines won by CLECs in Texas increased by 47 percent with the pace of orders processed by competitors growing by more than 280 percent.
  • In July, coincident with SBC’s entry into the long distance market in Texas, AT&T reduced its long distance rates in Texas by 50%, Sprint rolled out new bundled local and long distance service offerings and MCI WorldCom introduced three new rate plans in the state.
  • Company-wide, SBC has assigned more than 4,000 employees and spent more than $1.4 billion in its successful effort to open its local phone markets and comply with the requirements of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, including $61 million to develop, test and implement a range of systems to fit CLECs’ varying service and technical requirements.

* All information is as of September 1, 2000, unless otherwise noted.