Court Denies Bid on Local Phone Rules

The Supreme Court declined a request by federal regulators and long-distance phone companies to reactivate landmark rules intended to pry open the nation’s local phone monopolies to competition. The denial means key terms and conditions for deregulating the $100-billion local phone market will for now depend on the decisions of state regulators--instead of on uniform rules issued by the Federal Communications Commission. The denial was a defeat for the FCC and long-distance companies, which had sought to reinstate FCC rules suspended by a lower court, pending a legal challenge set to be heard in January.