BellSouth: Telephone Competition in Florida Reaches an All-Time High.

Business Editors

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 29, 2001

Telecommunications competition in Florida has grown throughout the state, according to a report submitted by BellSouth to the Florida Public Service Commission on Friday.

Research shows that there is competition in every one of BellSouth's 102 exchanges in Florida.

"This report is an accurate indicator of the expansion of local competition in Florida. Local competition is growing at an increasing pace in every market in the state. The result of this trend has been a notable decrease in our market share in all customer segments. It's not a question of if competition is here, but a matter of how fast it will grow," said BellSouth spokesman Spero Canton.

The report shows the broadening presence of not only resellers but also the number of facilities-based carriers, which are companies that have built their own communications infrastructure. The report also reveals that there have been increases in the number of residential customers using competitive local carriers.

"The statistics show that competitors are still making a major effort to acquire business customers, due to high revenue potentials, but we've also seen an increase in the attrition of residential customers. We believe this is only the beginning of a trend where we'll see an unprecedented effort by telecommunications companies competing to serve your home phone," said Canton.

In BellSouth's Florida service territory, there are 161 alternative local carriers fully operational in Florida with an estimated 800,000 customers. There are about 250,000 ported telephone numbers, these are from customers that opted to keep their own telephone number when they switched local facility-based carriers. There are 428 alternative local carriers that have filed to do business in Florida, indicating that competition will be getting more intense throughout the state in the future.

"Competition in Florida's local markets began in 1995 and the process has evolved much faster than when long distance competition occurred. We have watched a competitive market quickly develop in a very short time and it is evident that Florida is in the forefront of this trend," said Canton.

Fact Sheet

BellSouth Report: Competition in Florida is at an All-Time High

BellSouth has submitted a report to the Florida Public Service Commission on competition in Florida's telecommunications markets. Our data shows that competition exists in every one of BellSouth's 102 exchanges in Florida from Archer to Yulee. BellSouth believes this report is more current than previous reports submitted to the Commission and specifically reveals the following:

-- As of Nov. 30, 2000, there were 161 operational alternative local exchange
companies (ALECs) in BellSouth's Florida service territories.

-- Resellers are providing service in every BellSouth exchange in Florida,
except North Key Largo. However, the North Key Largo exchange has 3 unbundled
network elements (UNEs) and 5 NXX's assigned to ALECs. In November of 2000
there were 189,786 resold lines.

-- UNEs are being used to provide service in every exchange in Florida except
for the Maxville, which has less than 2,000 access lines.

-- ALECs have been assigned NXX codes in 73 exchanges, covering 97% of
BellSouth's total retail lines in Florida.

-- As of November 2000, ALECs are using almost 250,000 ported telephone numbers
in 47 exchanges, covering 92% of BellSouth's total retail lines in the state.

-- BellSouth is providing collocation arrangements in 55 exchanges (more than
130 wire centers) covering 96% of BellSouth's total retail lines in Florida.

-- ALECs are interconnected to BellSouth in 52 exchanges with more that 300,000
trunks covering 96% of BellSouth's total retail lines in the state.

These are the highlights of the report, using the most obvious measures of the existence of competition that are available. The number of actual lines being provided to end users by facilities based ALECs is not available to BellSouth. This factor understates the total amount of local competition we show in the report.