Vice President Al Gore has met with telephone and cable television executives as the Clinton Administration prepares to dismantle restrictions on the communications industry that keep local phone companies from offering long distance services in a bid to spur industry to build advanced communications networks: Sprint Corp said it does not expect MCI Communications Corp’s plans to enter the local telephone market to have any near-term impact on competition; it endorses expanded local competition primarily because of high access costs charged by the Regional Bell Operating Companies; while Bell Atlantic Corp said MCI was seeking to enter local markets at the same time as trying to keep regional telephone firms out of long-distance markets and suggested that British Telecommunications Plc, which has agreed to take a 20% stake in MCI, enjoyed unfair advantages under US regulatory policy.
