SBC Communications Inc. has begun a legal fight to invalidate central provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that subject the Baby Bell phone companies to stringent competition tests before they are allowed to compete in long-distance markets.
The company filed a suit in US District Court in Wichita Falls, Texas, Wednesday that seeks to strike down parts of the law as unconstitutional violations of free-speech and equal-protection rights.
Specifically, the company is attacking a provision in the law that names the Baby Bells - large regional local phone-system operators created by the 1984 breakup of AT&T - to meet a 14-point test for opening their own markets to competition before they are allowed to jump into long-distance markets.
"Never before in our nation's history has a federal statute imposed such far-reaching restrictions on the speech activities of a few expressly named parties," said Laurence Tribe, a leading authority in constitutional law from Harvard.
In Washington, FCC commissioner Susan Ness accused SBC of trying to circumvent Congress' intent to introduce local phone competition before allowing new entrants in the long-distance market.
"SBC's lawsuit appears to be an effort to circumvent that framework, to enable it to offer long-distance service without first opening its local markets to competition," Ness said in a statement.
Reuters contributed to this report.
