September 17, 1999

             FCC RELEASES STUDY ON TELEPHONE TRENDS

     The FCC has released Trends in Telephone Service.  This report is designed to provide answers to some
of the most frequently asked questions about the telephone industry -- questions asked by consumers, members of
Congress, other government agencies, telecommunications carriers, and members of the business and academic
communities.  Highlights from the sections in the report on local competition, telephone rates, subscribership,
international calling and toll free numbers are shown below:

     The report shows incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) claimed 96% of local service revenue in 1998,
down from 98% in 1997.  CAPs/CLECs reported $2.4 billion of local service in 1998, up from $80 million in 1993. 
Local service competitors are deploying fiber in their networks at a faster rate than are ILECS; they increased their
amount of fiber in place almost five-fold from the end of 1995 to the end of 1998.

     Local phone rates have remained steady as seen in the report.  The average monthly local residential charge
for service was $19.85 in October 1998 as compared to $19.24 in 1990; for a business with a single phone line, the
representative charge for service was $41.28 in October 1998 as compared to $41.21 in 1990.

     Twenty million households have been added to the nation's telephone system since November 1983.  As of
March 1999, 98.5 million households had telephone service.

     The number of calls made from the United States to other countries increased from 200 million in 1980 to
4.2 billion in 1997.  In 1997, Americans spent about $15 billion on international calls.  On average, carriers billed
$0.67 per minute for international calls in 1997, a decline of 50% since 1980.

     There are currently three toll free prefixes in use - 800, 888, 877 - with almost 20 million toll free numbers
assigned as of the end of August 1999.  Two new codes - 866 and 855 - are expected to be placed in service in early
2000.  

     This report is available for reference in the FCC's Reference Information Center, Courtyard Level, 445 12th,
S.W.  Copies may be purchased by calling International Transcription Services, Inc. (ITS) at (202) 857-3800.  The
report can be downloaded [file names:  TREND299.ZIP, TREND299.PDF] from the FCC-State Link internet site at
http://www.fcc.gov/ccb/stats on the World Wide Web.

                              FCC

     For further information, contact the Industry Analysis Division, Common Carrier Bureau, at (202) 418-0940,
or for users of TTY equipment, call 202-418-0484.