October 3, 2002

The Michigan Public Service Commission today granted First Communications LLC and ACN Communications Services, Inc. licenses to provide basic local telephone service in Michigan.   The Commission approved the licenses because it determined that the companies possess sufficient technical, financial and managerial resources and abilities to provide basic local telephone service to all residential and commercial customers within the geographic area of their license and intend to provide service within one year of today’s order.  First Communications and ACN join more than 180 companies that are currently licensed to provide basic local telephone service in Michigan.

The Commission concluded that competition for local telephone service can be advantageous to Michigan residents and, by granting these requests for a license, opportunities for competition will expand.  The Commission conditioned the licenses upon full compliance with provisions of the Michigan Telecommunications Act, as well as the Commission’s anti-slamming procedures. Failure to comply with those provisions may result in revocation of the license or other penalties.  The Commission also conditioned the licenses upon the companies providing service to customers within a reasonable time, indicating that failure to do so may result in revocation of the license.  Finally, the Commission noted that any numbers obtained by the companies are a public resource and are not owned by the companies.  Therefore, if they fail to provide service or go out of business, any numbers assigned to them are subject to reclamation.

First Communications and ACN received licenses to provide basic local telephone service in all telephone exchanges currently served by Ameritech Michigan, Verizon North Inc., and Contel of the South, Inc. d/b/a Verizon North Systems, Inc.  Telephone exchanges are geographic boundaries that define a customer’s local calling area.  First Communications and ACN applied for a license on May 31, 2002 and July 11, 2002, respectively.

The companies may begin providing basic local telephone service once they have finalized interconnection arrangements with other telephone service providers and filed approved tariffs with the Commission.  Tariffs will reflect the services the companies will offer and identify the telephone exchanges in which they will offer service.  Interconnection arrangements allow customers to place calls to, and receive them from, customers of other local telephone service providers.