NEWS                                                       October 24, 1994

      EQUIVALENCY FINDINGS TO RESULT IN MORE COMPETITION AND LOWER
                PRICES ON INTERNATIONAL TELEPHONE CALLS 

Consumers should soon see lower rates on telephone calls between the United States and the
United Kingdom, thanks to recent rulings of the FCC and its counterparts in the United
Kingdom.

Last month, the FCC opened the way for international private line resale, or international
simple resale (ISR), for the provision of telephone service between the United States and the
United Kingdom. ISR means that long-distance telephone companies can lease the use of
international private lines from other U.S. carriers at bulk discount rates, and provide
consumers with lower-priced switched telephone service over those lines.   

The FCC allowed ISR when it found that the U.K. telephone market was as open to fair
competition for the provision of ISR  ( i.e., "equivalent")  as the U.S. market. This
equivalency finding was a precondition to allowing ISR between the U.S. and the U.K.   The
F.C.C. anticipated that the United Kingdom would soon make a similar finding about the
U.S.  On October 20, 1994, it did so when the President of the Board of Trade in the United
Kingdom designated  the U.S. as equivalent. That finding was a U.K. precondition for
permitting companies to engage in ISR between the U.S. and the U.K.

These mutual equivalency findings now allow companies to offer ISR between the two
countries. The services should start almost immediately and will create much more
competition for telephone service between the U.K. and the U.S.,  one of the busiest routes
in the world. Lower prices and new services are expected to follow.  As prices decline, the
number and length of calls are also expected to rise.


                                  - FCC -



International Bureau Contact:  Jennifer A. Warren at (202) 418-1470