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             California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Avenue, Room 5301            San Francisco, CA 94102
      CONTACT: Dianne Dienstein      October 15, 1996  CPUC - 82
               415-703-2423

   CPUC SAYS TELCO COMPETITION IN CALIFORNIA WILL FORGE AHEAD

    California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) President P.
Gregory Conlon reassured businesses, consumers, and the
telecommunications industry that the Eighth Circuit Court of
Appeals' stay of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC)
August order on implementation of local phone competition won't
delay California's move to full competition.
    The California Public Utilities Commission has already
authorized more than 60 companies to provide local phone service
whenever they are ready.  The Commission has established rules to
facilitate competitors' access to and interconnection with
existing local phone company networks.  The Commission is now
working on arbitration proceedings for four major competitors and
expects these proceedings to be completed before the end of the
year, in accordance with the timing requirements of the 1996
Telecommunications Act.
    "We in California have been steadily moving to full
competition in the telecommunications industry since 1993, first
with competition at the intraLATA toll level, and now at the
local phone service level.  I want to assure everyone in
California, and those outside the state who do business or
communicate with people in California, that today's Court stay of
the FCC order won't halt or delay actions the CPUC is taking to
bring full competition to California in early 1997.
                            - more -
    "The stay will, however, give the Court time to consider the
appeal California and other states have made, to leave it to the
states to develop policies and procedures to facilitate
competition, consistent with the Telecommunications Act of 1996,
and to retain regulatory authority where it is appropriate to
assure fair competition and consumer protection," said Conlon.
    In its August order, the FCC issued broad rules that affect
California's authority over intrastate matters by establishing
rules for pricing of network elements, interconnection, and
resale local competition.
    The CPUC will soon issue rules to assure continued universal
service in a competitive market, to govern unbundling of network
components, and to facilitate access by competitors.



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