FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1997                       (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

       JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ALLOWS TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY
      TO EXCHANGE DEFAULTED RESIDENTIAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION



     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice today approved
a proposal by the National Consumer Telecommunications Data
Exchange Inc. (NCTDE) and its member long-distance
telecommunications carriers to exchange information about
consumers who have failed to make payment on residential
accounts. 

     The proposed information exchange is designed to reduce the
amount of uncollectible debt owed to long-distance carriers on
residential accounts and should lower costs to consumers.

     Under the program, member carriers will be required to
inform a third-party -- a vendor hired by NCTDE -- of the
identity of any closed residential account with an undisputed and
unpaid balance in excess of an amount to be determined.  All
members would be able to question the third-party vendor to
verify whether an applicant for new long-distance service had
failed to pay a long-distance bill to a prior long-distance
carrier.  Neither the carrier sending the information nor the
carrier receiving it from the third-party would know the identity
of the other carrier.

     To expedite the recovery of unpaid bills from closed
accounts, any member carrier could also utilize a "skip tracing"
service provided by the third-party vendor to determine whether
customers who had previously terminated a defaulted residential
account were currently obtaining service from another member
carrier under a new name or from a different address.  The
identity of the new carrier, however, would not be provided.

     The Department's position was stated in a business review
letter to counsel for the National Telecommunications Data
Exchange Inc. from Joel I. Klein, Assistant Attorney General in
charge of the Antitrust Division.

     Klein's letter said the information exchange proposal was
not likely to create any anticompetitive effects since the
program was designed with sufficient safeguards so that it was
unlikely to facilitate collusion.  No information pertaining to
prices or other terms of service will be exchanged and any
decision to serve a new customer with a "bad" credit history or
to try to collect unpaid debts from a former customer will be
made on a unilateral basis by a member carrier.

     To the extent that the program serves to reduce the
uncollectible rate for member carriers, it should lower their
costs and have a procompetitive effect.

     In 1994, the Justice Department approved a similar proposal
regarding defaulted commercial telephone accounts. 

     Under the Department's business review procedure, a person
or organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust
Division and receive a statement as to whether the Division will
challenge the activity as a violation of federal antitrust laws.

     A file containing the business review request and the
Department's response may be examined in the Legal Procedure Unit
of the Antitrust Division, Suite 215, Liberty Place, 325 7th
Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20530.  After a 30-day waiting
period, the document supporting the business review will be added
to the file.


97-361