NEWSJanuary 29, 1998

           JAMES D. SCHLICHTING NAMED DEPUTY CHIEF, COMMON CARRIER
                                   BUREAU
                                      
                Jim Schlichting has been appointed Deputy Chief of the FCC's Common
Carrier Bureau. He will supervise the work of the Bureau's Competitive Pricing
Division and projects relating to high cost universal service and separations issues in
the Accounting and Audits Division. 

                Since February 1996 Schlichting has served as Chief of the Competitive
Pricing Division of the FCC s Common Carrier Bureau.  That Division has been
responsible for developing and implementing policies for reforming the
Commission s current common carrier pricing policies in light of the new
competitive paradigm of the 1996 Act.  Among other matters, the Division has
responsibility for policies relating to the Commission s access charge and price cap
rules and to the recovery of long-term number portability costs.  

                Prior to that position,  Schlichting served for six years as Chief of the
Common Carrier Bureau s Policy and Program Planning Division.  During that
time, that Division had primary staff responsibility for formulating Commission
common carrier policy in such areas as expanded interconnection, interexchange
competition, interstate access charges, and the various policy issues related to the
emergence of competition to local telephone companies.

                Schlichting has been at the FCC since August 1985.  Before becoming Chief
of the Policy Division, he served as Special Counsel for Domestic Policy in the
Policy Division, and as Legal Advisor on common carrier issues to FCC Chairman
Dennis Patrick.  Before coming to the Commission, Schlichting was an attorney
with the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, where he worked on
telecommunications and litigation matters.  

                Schlichting received his B.A. degree from Yale University, summa cum
laude, and his J.D. degree from the Harvard Law School, magna cum laude.  He
also received a research certificate in history from Cambridge University, and
served as law clerk to Judges Tone and Swygert on the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Seventh Circuit in Chicago.  

                                    - FCC -