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Ext. of Lines, FCC 95-376//$ $/63.01 Contents of Applications/$ $/300.214 Extension of Lines/$ FCC 95-376 Before the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of) ) AmericaTel Corporation ) File No. I-T-C-94-514 ) Application for authorization ) pursuant to Section 214 of the ) Communications Act of 1934, as ) amended, to acquire facilities ) for service to Canada and Mexico ) Memorandum Opinion, Order and Authorization Adopted: August 23, 1995 Released: September 5, 1995 By the Commission: 1. In this order we grant AmericaTel Corporation's ("AmericaTel") request for authority to acquire satellite and terrestrial facilities for service between the United States and Canada and Mexico, respectively. We grant this application subject to conditions governing transborder services generally and AmericaTel's foreign-affiliated operations in the United States specifically. 2. AmericaTel holds several Section 214 authorizations to acquire and operate international facilities in the United States. A majority of AmericaTel is indirectly owned by Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones S.A. ("ENTEL-Chile"), a Chilean domestic and international long distance carrier. In 1994, we approved ENTEL-Chile's acquisition of a controlling interest in AmericaTel. We found in AmericaTel that Chile's liberalized telecommunications regulatory environment had progressed substantially in promoting competition and preventing the abuse of market power. We also found that grant of AmericaTel's application to transfer control to ENTEL-Chile should stimulate economic development in the United States and foster increased access to foreign telecommunications markets for U.S. companies. We considered the nondiscrimination safeguards provided by Chile's regulatory regime, and the safeguards we imposed as conditions of our authorization to ENTEL-Chile, to be sufficient to protect U.S. carriers in their provision of U.S. international service between the United States and Chile. 3. Now that ENTEL-Chile's acquisition of AmericaTel is complete, the issue when considering AmericaTel's Section 214 applications for additional international facilities is whether the authority requested poses an additional risk of anticompetitive effects and, if so, whether the safeguards now in effect are sufficient to protect against that risk. Under this standard, we conclude that the public interest would be served by granting the instant application. 4. AmericaTel requests authority to lease and operate three 1.544 Mbps circuits each between the United States and Mexico and the United States and Canada, via U.S., Mexican or Canadian domestic satellites. Such circuits would be used for the provision of transborder services consistent with consultations required under Article XIV(d) of the INTELSAT Agreement. AmericaTel also requests authority to lease connecting satellite earth station capacity from earth station operators in Florida. It further seeks authority to lease and operate from U.S. carriers three 1.544 Mbps terrestrial circuits each between the United States and Mexico and the United States and Canada. AmericaTel would use the proposed facilities to provide its authorized services, including switched voice and private line services. 5. We conclude that, subject to conditions governing transborder services generally, authorization of the requested facilities does not pose new opportunities for discrimination or anticompetitive effects not already addressed by the safeguards imposed in AmericaTel. AmericaTel does not request authority to establish facilities connecting to any new country where it has an affiliation with a foreign carrier or to provide any new services to an affiliated country for which it already has received a facilities-based authorization (i.e., Chile). Indeed, the only new country for which we are authorizing facilities-based service is Canada, a country for which AmericaTel has certified it has no affiliation with a foreign carrier. Thus, granting this application is unlikely to permit market abuse or anticompetitive conduct. We agree with AmericaTel that granting this application would serve the public interest by stimulating demand and increasing competition. We therefore grant its application, subject to certain conditions governing use of foreign and U.S. domestic satellites for transborder services and subject to the conditions of AmericaTel. 6. Because AmericaTel is affiliated with a foreign carrier, the full Commission has reviewed its Section 214 applications for additional international facilities. In a companion order adopted today, we are removing the requirement that the full Commission review all Section 214 applications for international facilities filed by foreign carriers or their affiliates. We will continue to review such applications when they raise matters reserved for Commission review under our general delegation of authority to the International Bureau. This action should hasten the grant of routine applications filed by affiliated carriers such as AmericaTel and assist them in providing prompt and efficient service to U.S. consumers. 7. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that application File No. I-T-C-94-514 IS GRANTED, and AmericaTel is authorized to: a. lease and operate three 1.544 Mbps half-circuits each between appropriately licensed U.S. earth stations and U.S., Mexican, or Canadian domestic satellites for the provision of transborder services between the United States and Mexico and between the United States and Canada, consistent with consultations under Article XIV(d) of the INTELSAT Agreement for the use of such satellites and subject to any restrictions set forth in this or any other Commission Order involving transborder services; b. lease from U.S. carriers and operate three 1.544 Mbps terrestrial half-circuits each between the United States and Mexico and the United States and Canada, respectively, to provide its authorized services, including private line and public switched services; and c. lease and operate necessary domestic connecting facilities. 8. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that our authorization of AmericaTel to provide private lines as part of the services authorized herein is limited to the provision of such private lines only between the United States and Mexico and the United States and Canada -- that is, private lines that originate in the United States and terminate in Mexico or Canada or that originate in Mexico or Canada and terminate in the United States. In addition, AmericaTel may not -- and its tariff must state that its customers may not -- connect private lines provided over these facilities to the public switched network at either the U.S. or foreign end, or both, for the provision of international switched basic services, unless authorized to do so by the Commission upon a finding that the destination country affords resale opportunities equivalent to those available under U.S. law, in accordance with Regulation of International Accounting Rates, Phase II, First Report and Order, 7 FCC Rcd 559 (1991); Order on Reconsideration and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 7 FCC Rcd 7927 (1992), petition for reconsideration pending. 9. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that neither AmericaTel nor any persons or companies directly or indirectly controlling or controlled by AmericaTel, or under direct or indirect common control with it, shall acquire or enjoy any right, for the purpose of handling or interchanging traffic to or from the United States, its territories or possessions, which is denied to any other United States carrier by reason of any concession, contract, understanding, or working arrangement to which AmericaTel or any persons or companies controlling or controlled by AmericaTel are parties. 10. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the conditions imposed in AmericaTel Corporation, 9 FCC Rcd 3993 (1994),  66-70 and 73-77, are hereby imposed as conditions of this authorization. 11. This order is effective upon adoption. Petitions for reconsideration under Section 1.106 of the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R.  1.106, may be filed within 30 days of public notice of this order (see Section 1.4(b)(2)). FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION William F. Caton Acting Secretary