******************************************************** NOTICE ******************************************************** This document was converted from WordPerfect to ASCII Text format. Content from the original version of the document such as headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, graphics, and page numbers will not show up in this text version. All text attributes such as bold, italic, underlining, etc. from the original document will not show up in this text version. Features of the original document layout such as columns, tables, line and letter spacing, pagination, and margins will not be preserved in the text version. If you need the complete document, download the WordPerfect version or Adobe Acrobat version, if available. ***************************************************************** DA 98-1714 Before the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of ) ) MCI Telecommunications Corporation ) CC Docket No. 96-149 ) Petition for Declaratory Ruling Regarding the ) Joint Marketing Restriction in Section 271(e)(1) ) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended ) by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ) ORDER Adopted: August 27, 1998 Released: August 27, 1998 By the Chief, Policy and Program Planning Division: 1. On August 10, 1998, MCI Telecommunications Corporation (MCI) filed a motion to withdraw its petition for declaratory ruling, filed May 1, 1997, in the above-captioned proceeding. In its May 1997 petition, MCI requested a declaratory ruling on the application of the Commission's rules governing the joint marketing restriction in section 271(e)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934. Section 271(e)(1) restricts a telecommunications carrier that serves greater than 5 percent of the nation's presubscribed access lines from jointly marketing its interLATA services with resold Bell Operating Company (BOC) local exchange service in an in- region state until February 8, 1999, or the date when a BOC is allowed to enter the long distance market in that state, whichever is earlier. On December 24, 1996, the Commission issued the Non-Accounting Safeguards Order, which discussed, inter alia, the marketing practices that it interpreted section 271(e)(1) both to proscribe and to permit. 2. In its motion to withdraw, MCI states that on March 12, 1997, Pacific Bell filed with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) a complaint against MCI and AT&T, alleging that certain MCI and AT&T marketing materials violate Section 271(e)(1), as interpreted in the Non-Accounting Safeguards Order. Ameritech also filed an informal complaint before this Commission relating to similar materials and, subsequently, a formal compliant challenging an MCI advertisement marketing local and long distance service. 3. In its motion to withdraw, MCI notes that actions that precipitated MCI's May 1997 petition have either been dismissed or have been rendered moot by marketplace developments, and asserts that further proceedings on the petition would, therefore, not be productive. MCI states that neither the Pacific Bell complaint before the CPUC that initially motivated MCI to file its May 1997 petition nor Ameritech's formal complaint before this Commission currently are pending, and that MCI is no longer using the marketing materials attached to its May 1997 petition. MCI requests, therefore, that it be permitted to withdraw its petition for declaratory ruling, without prejudice to a future refiling in the event that subsequent development raise similar issues again. 4. In this order, we grant MCI's request to withdraw its May 1997 petition for declaratory ruling. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that the MCI's motion to withdraw its May 1997 petition for declaratory ruling regarding the joint marketing restriction in section 271(e)(1), IS GRANTED without prejudice to future refiling. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Carol E. Mattey Chief, Program Policy and Planning Division Common Carrier Bureau