GTE Corp, Stamford, Connecticut is just about the biggest local telephone company in the US, although it is much less visible than the Baby Bells and the other major regionals that had escaped the Bell System before the break-up, because its franchises are scattered right across the US. But now the Federal Communications Commission believes that it should rank alongside the Baby Bells in one key aspect: it is proposing to apply to GTE the same open network architecture and non-discrimination safeguards that govern the seven large regional phone companies. The measures are the regulations that require telephone companies to offer new technology separately so that enhanced service providers can buy only the services they want, in particular covering interconnection rules for the emerging operators of Metropolitan Area Network loops.
