At the same time as freeing the seven regional phone companies spun off from AT&T to get into the businesses of offering value-added services on behalf of principals (CI No 765), Judge Harold Greene reaffirmed the ban on the companies entering the long distance telephone business or getting into manufacture. Judge Greene, charged with supervising the working out in practice of the anti-trust consent decree with AT&T, also relaxed the rules by rescinding the requirement that the firms get his permission before acquiring non-telecommunications businesses, and the rule that limited such activities to a maximum 10% of total turnover. It is not clear whether the ban on their offering long-distance service will preclude Nynex Corp from completing its agreement to become Cable & Wireless Plc’s partner on the laying and operation of the PTAT-1 transatlantic fibre-optic telephone cable. However Pacific Telesis Group, also involved with Cable & Wireless on the trans-Pacific cable, says the Judge’s ruling will not make much diffebence, so presumbably international is not long-distance.
