June 29, 1994

NEW NETWORK RELIABILITY COUNCIL MEETING
                Membership Reflects Convergence, Includes Cable and Satellite Interests

On July 6, 1994 the Commission will host the first meeting of the re-chartered Network
Reliability Council, whose members now include cable, satellite, Personal Communications
Service, computer and cellular telephone representatives.  The new members were added to
the Council to reflect the increasing trend toward convergence and competition present in the
telephone industry.

This meeting, which is open to the public, will be held in room 856 of 1919 M Street,
N.W. on July 6, 1994 from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m.  Following the meeting, members of the
Network Reliability Council and FCC staff experts will be available to answer questions
from the media.

The Network Reliability Council was established in 1992 in response to a number of large
scale outages of the public switched telephone network.  The Council's revised charter calls
for it to evaluate the reliability of network services in the United States on a local and
regional basis, to evaluate potential new risks from new interconnection arrangements and
changing technologies including cable television and wireless technologies, to suggest
guidelines for keeping essential services operating during outages and to collect data on
whether network outages have a disproportionate impact on certain geographic areas or
demographic groups.

The Chairman of the re-chartered Network Reliability Council  is Richard C. Notebaert,
Chairman and CEO of Ameritech Corporation.  New members of the Council include Decker
Anstrom of NCTA, Stephen Effros of CATA, Steven Dorfman of Hughes Space and
Communications, Thomas Wheeler of CTIA and Mark Golden of PCIA. 

The Network Reliability Council's meeting follows yesterday's action in the U.S. House of
Representatives to reform the telecommunications market and provide more opportunities for
competition in local and long distance telephone service.  This legislation will introduce
additional competition into the telephone market and hasten the need for a new and expanded
definition of network reliability.

"The changing nature of the telephone market requires new solutions to the issue of
reliability," said FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.  "Competition and convergence can and must go
hand-in-hand with reliable service."