XO Criticises Verizon-MCI

RESTON, Va. -- XO Communications, Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: XOCM.OB) today stated that it is pleased that Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) imposed wholesale pricing conditions on the proposed Verizon-MCI merger, but disappointed that the SCC failed to adopt other critical safeguards.

The following statement is attributable to Doug Kinkoph, XO's vice president of Regulatory and External Affairs:

"XO Communications is pleased that the Virginia SCC has attached the important condition to its approval of the Verizon-MCI merger requiring that certain intrastate and interstate wholesale services continue to be offered at pre-merger rates, terms and conditions. This condition will ensure that these rates are not immediately increased following the merger."

"The proposed Verizon-MCI and SBC-AT&T mergers are bad for competition and bad for business customers, so the SCC's condition on wholesale rates is a step in the right direction. But it is only one step. Merger conditions need to be comprehensive in order to offset the real and inevitable harms of these mergers."

"Federal regulators now reviewing the mergers should take heed, and also consider the other equally important conditions that XO has proposed, including, among others, ensuring competitors have guaranteed access to unbundled network elements at the same rates for five years; recalculation of the non-impaired Wire Center List for de-listed UNEs, removing AT&T and MCI as unaffiliated competitors; and, elimination of DS1 loop and transport caps, which were based on the role of AT&T and MCI as competitors, and will no longer apply after the mergers. Lastly, business customers should have the right to take a "fresh look" at current contracts with either AT&T or MCI, and to opt out of those contracts if they prefer not to be served by the monopoly phone company after the mergers."

"We hope the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice, as well as other state commissions, will expand on the work of the Virginia SCC and place comprehensive merger conditions not only on the proposed Verizon-MCI merger, but on the proposed SBC-AT&T merger, as well."

XO Communications Inc.