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Telco Disputes N.Y. Attorney General's Merger-Comment Claims
Washington-- Requiring the sale of digital subscriber line service on a stand-alone basis is unnecessary because "naked DSL" is generally available in its markets, Verizon Communications Inc. said last Tuesday in a filing defending its proposed merger with MCI Inc.
Earlier in the month, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer urged the Federal Communications Commission to require naked DSL, claiming Verizon's bundling of voice and DSL in a package was anti-competitive and deterred consumers from experimenting with such voice-over-Internet protocol providers as Vonage Holdings Corp.
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Cable companies deploying VoIP service, including Bright House Networks, complained about Verizon's bundling policies before the merger was announced, questioning Verizon's refusal to transfer a customer's phone number until both voice and DSL service had been discontinued.
Verizon told the FCC those practices were a thing of the past and Spitzer's merger condition should be disregarded.
"Although Verizon's advances in this area were originally geographically limited, the comments of the New York Attorney General are now moot because Verizon's standalone DSL offering is generally available in all of Verizon's service territories, not just the former Bell Atlantic service territory," Verizon said.
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