Press Release July 28, 1998	Contact: 202/462-6262 Gene Kimmelman, kimmge@consumer.org Kathleen McShea, mcshka@consumer.org Consumers Union Washington, DC Office

Consumers Union Reax to GTE Bell-Atlantic Merger:
"Another Nail in the Coffin" for Local Telephone Competition

WASHINGTON – Gene Kimmelman, co-director of the DC office of Consumers Union released the following statement commenting on the proposed merger between GTE and Bell Atlantic, which still must be approved by federal regulators:

"The proposal to combine GTE and Bell Atlantic looks like another nail in the coffin of local telephone competition. The problem for consumers continues to be lack of choice for local phone service. In fact, local phone competition is virtually non-existent.

"Since passage of the Telecommunications Act in 1996, six of the eight large local phone companies have merged into two enormous monopolies rather than open their markets to competition. If the goal is to get competition, this is not the way to go.

"We’re finding the monopolies are getting bigger and bigger with the dominant players joining together rather than taking each other on. And by combining GTE with Bell Atlantic, it is much less likely that other companies will make the enormous investments necessary to challenge such a large entrenched monopoly.

"In this new telephone marketplace, it appears that a large majority of consumers will be worse off. While some businesses and high volume consumers will see increased competition for telephone business, the average consumer will be left dealing with a bigger monopoly, no effective choices for telephone services and the inflated prices that usually follow.

"We need to blast open local phone monopolies, not let them get larger and more powerful. Unfortunately, our nation’s antitrust officials have been asleep at the wheel, allowing monopolies to expand. Hopefully this latest deal will wake them up. It is time to end merger mania."