AT&T TO ASK QWEST STATES TO INVESTIGATE DEALS WITH CLECs

AT&T said it planned to ask Colo. PUC and regulators in other Qwest states to investigate whether Qwest had made illegal secret agreements with selected CLECs that provided favored carriers with rates and terms not available to other competitors. Colo. is Qwest’s hq state. AT&T was reacting to complaint against Qwest filed with Minn. PUC last week by Telecom Div. of Minn. Dept. of Commerce on behalf of state’s retail telecom ratepayers. Minn. complaint alleged Qwest made secret amendments to interconnection contracts with selected CLECs to mute their opposition to Qwest long distance entry and other Qwest regulatory initiatives. It charged that Qwest and “partner” CLECs might be concealing favorable terms so other CLECs couldn’t opt into them. Minn. complaint didn’t name specific CLECs or deals. Qwest has denied Minn. charges.

AT&T said it had “no reason to believe that this is limited” to Minn., and Qwest might seek to make secret deals with selected CLECs throughout its 14-state region to “silence those partners from participating in regulatory hearings” on its Sec. 271 petitions. Colo. PUC hasn’t received petition from AT&T, but spokesman said agency hadn’t seen any evidence of secret Qwest dealmaking to unlawfully influence CLEC opponents of its regulatory initiatives. Similarly, Colo. Office of Consumer Counsel, state’s utility watchdog agency, isn’t aware of any improper deals between Qwest and CLECs, but spokesman said agency might not know of such dealings because details wouldn’t be public. Consumer advocacy agencies in some other Qwest states were either unaware of Minn. complaint against Qwest or didn’t know enough about situation to comment.

Qwest said it had entered into hundreds of interconnection agreements with CLECs across its region and it was common for proprietary information in some portions of interconnection contracts to be kept confidential. It also denied allegations that its interconnection deals with CLECs in Colo. or other states of its region were illegal. Only question, Qwest said, is whether some contract terms should have been filed publicly. Spokesman said his company was looking into that question and if something should be filed publicly, it would do so.