FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE              NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
  February 24, 2000                       Mike Balmoris at (202) 418-0253
                                     Email: mbalmori@fcc.gov
  
  
                   COMMON CARRIER ACTION
                              
michelle carey APPOINTED Chief, policy and program planning division,
                   common carrier bureau
  
  
  Washington, D.C.   Michelle Carey has been appointed Chief of the Common
  Carrier Bureau's Policy and Program Planning Division.
  
  Since December 1998, Ms. Carey has been Deputy Chief in the Policy Division of
  the Common Carrier Bureau, where she supervised work on the Bell Atlantic 271
  application for New York and the SBC-Ameritech merger.  As Chief of the Policy
  Division, Ms. Carey will be responsible for the implementation of numerous key
  provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, including evaluating applications by
  the Bell Operating Companies to enter the long distance market, and reviewing license
  transfer applications filed by common carriers.  
  
  Before becoming Deputy Chief of the Policy Division, Ms. Carey was a senior
  attorney in the Policy Division, and a staff attorney in the Common Carrier Bureau's
  Enforcement Division.
  
                                     Prior to joining the Commission, Ms.
  Carey served as a law clerk for the honorable Hart T. Mankin of the United States Court
  of Veterans Appeals in Washington, D.C.  She received her B.A., magna cum laude, from
  Georgetown University and received her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law
  Center.
  
                          - FCC -