On January 7, 2003, CompTel, an industry trade association representing telephone companies (http://www.compTel.com), released an analysis that finds that local phone competition could save consumers up to $9.24 billion in localphone bills annually. The data that CompTel used for this analysis was reported by the Telecommunications Research and Action Center (TRAC) in 2001 - 2002 and made available to the public. The report attributes the savings to a policy position being urged by CompTel at the Federal Communications Commission.

TRAC did not take part in CompTel's analysis, did not see the analysis or report before it was released by CompTel, and has not endorsed the findings or policy recommendations in the report.

TRAC is pleased that CompTel has recognized the quality and validity of our work. TRAC supports the introduction of effective and sustainable competition into the local and long distance telephone industry for residential telephone consumers. TRAC, however, has not participated in the complex pricing debate that is the subject of the CompTel study. TRAC understands that there are competing views on the so-called UNE and UNE-P issues, and that one view is that the current rules have seriously hampered the deployment of competitive services to residential customers; while CompTel argues the opposite. The Federal Communications Commission will decide the issue.

TRAC state competition studies and other publications are available on www.trac.org.

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MEDIA CONTACT:

John Breyault, TRAC, johnb@trac.org, 202-263-2943

ABOUT TRAC:

The Telecommunications Research and Action Center (TRAC), founded in 1983, is a non-profit membership organization based in Washington, DC that promotes the interests of residential telecommunications customers. TRAC staff researches telecommunications issues and publishes rate comparisons to help consumers make informed decisions regarding their long distance and local phone service options. TRAC can be found on the web at http://www.trac.org.