PUBLIC NOTICE
  Federal Communications Commission
  1919 M St., N.W.
  Washington, D.C. 20554



                                                       DA 97-1328
                                                    June 25, 1997

 MCI TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION FILES PETITION FOR RULEMAKING
        REGARDING LOCAL EXCHANGE COMPANY REQUIREMENTS FOR
        BILLING AND COLLECTION OF NON-SUBSCRIBED SERVICES

                       Rulemaking No. 9108

 Comment Date:July 25, 1997
 Reply Comment Date:August 14, 1997

On May 19, 1997, the Commission received a Petition for Rulemaking from MCI Telecommunications
Corporation (MCI).  MCI's Petition requests that the Commission begin a proceeding to consider rules
governing the provision of billing and collection services provided by Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) to
interexchange carriers (IXCs) that offer interexchange services to end-users on a non-subscribed basis.
MCI defines "non-subscribed services" as the full range of "casual calling" methods, including 10XXX,
collect calling services, 900 services, and calls billed to verified third parties.

MCI alleges that the long distance market segment is threatened by the LECs' plans to engage in
anti-competitive practices which could result in the cessation of LEC-provided billing and collection
services to Interexchange Carriers (IXCs) that offer non-subscribed services.  Non-subscribed services, as
defined by MCI, are a set of interexchange services provided to customers where the use of the services
is the result of event-generated customer choice, such as 10XXX calling, third-party billing, collect calling,
and 900 services.  According to MCI, some LECs have proposed to re-write their billing and collection
agreements in ways that would greatly increase the costs of non-subscribed services for IXCs, thus forcing
smaller IXCs out of the market.  MCI argues that this constitutes an attempt by LECs to secure an unfair
competitive advantage as they prepare to enter the IXC market.  MCI requests that the Commission initiate
a rulemaking to create a rule for the LEC's provision of billing and collection services for non-subscribed
services.  MCI, in support of its request, argues that the Commission is justified in enacting a rule based
upon legal precedent, the public interest, and Section 272 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Interested parties should file comments on or before July 25, 1997, and reply comments on or before
August 14, 1997.  Parties that submitted comments or reply comments in the ACTA Petition for
Declaratory Ruling proceeding (ENF-97-05) addressing the MCI Petition should also submit their
comments in conjunction with this proceeding.  Parties are free, of course, to submit new comments. 
Interested parties must file an original and four copies of their comments with the Office of the Secretary,
Federal Communications Commission, Room 222, 1919 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20554.
Comments should reference Rulemaking No. 9108.  Parties should also send one copy of their comments
to the Commission's copy contractor, International Transcription Service (ITS), 1231 20th Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20036.  Comments will be available for public inspection during regular business hours
in the FCC Reference Center, 1919 M Street, N.W., Room 239, Washington, D.C 20554.


Parties are also asked to submit comments and reply comments on diskette.  Such diskette submissions
would be in addition to the formal filing requirements addressed above.  Parties submitting diskettes should
submit them to Darius B. Withers of the Common Carrier Bureau, Room 6120, 2025 M Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20554.  Such submissions should be on a 3.5 inch diskette formatted in an IBM
compatible form using MS DOS 5.0 and WordPerfect 5.1 software.  The diskette should be submitted in
"read only" mode.  The diskette should be clearly labelled with the party's name, proceeding, type of
pleading (comment or reply comment) and date of submission.  The diskette should be accompanied by a
cover letter.

We will treat this proceeding as a permit-but-disclose proceeding for purposes of the Commission's ex
parte rules.  See generally 47 C.F.R.  1.1200-1.1216.  For further information contact Darius B.
Withers, Enforcement Division, Common Carrier Bureau, at 202/ 418-0960.