This telecom advocacy group witnessed breakup of Bell Telephone and had a hand in drafting the Telecom Act of 1996. Would you like to venture a guess about what this tenured telecom group is doing today?

Update: merged with ASCENT to form the CompTel/Ascent Alliance.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Associate Editor [May 18, 2001]

Founded in 1981 as the Association of Long Distance Telephone Companies (ALTEL), the Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel) is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year.

CompTel is dedicated to the pursuit of full and fair competition in all telecom service segments. It represents CLECs, ISPs, ASPs, and other SPs in national and international markets, as well as representing the industry's telecom manufacturers and suppliers.

Recent additions include emerging new players such as energy companies and metropolitan optical network providers.

Power structure
CompTel had 344 members at the end of last year. Non-members can view a partial list of current CompTel members online, but only full members are allowed to view the complete membership list. Annual dues depend on the applicant's size and the role they play in the telecom industry.

CompTel's governing structure provides equal representation of small, medium, and large business divisions. Each segment elects six board members annually. CompTel's core group also elects an executive committee run by the top three CompTel staff—President, Vice Chairman, and Vice Chairman/Treasurer, and four board members.

CompTel is funded from dues and trade show revenues. Attendance at its annual convention has risen dramatically since the association was founded. In 1981, the convention was attended by 18 member companies and in February 2001, the event boasted some 330 member companies and 4,400 attendees.

Uninhibited feedback
CompTel hosts two other annual events—a Summer Business Conference with a Trade Exposition, held in June at Seattle, Wash. and a fall version of the same theme in October at Boston, Mass. The association will hold the 2002 annual convention in Miami, Fla.

Terry Monroe, CompTel vice president of industry and government relations said the group strives to provide its members with interesting venues that feature timely topics.

"We're always listening to member feedback," Monroe said. "In Seattle, we'll add a forum on Canadian regulatory and business issues, and in Miami we'll focus on the Latin American marketplace. Many of our member companies are going global and we need to serve their business needs."

CompTel's regulatory advocacy and business connections are both key benefits important to members. Said Monroe, "while our advocacy is second to none and is viewed that way, members also view CompTel as the place to do business."

Members who are service providers, professionals, and consultants get discounts on booth space and registration fees for CompTel events. Monroe noted than an overwhelming number of exhibitors and attendees are CompTel members at its three different events.

Hear the Bell
As a business advocate, CompTel was involved in the Congressional hearings that led to the breakup of the Bell System on January 1, 1984. It worked with the Competitive Long Distance Coalition (CLDC) along with AT&T, MCI, Sprint, and WorldCom to help shape the rules that became the Telecom Act of 1996.

It has been involved in numerous other campaigns, from state-level advocacy working with Public Utility Commissions to international advocacy where it works with the United States Trade Representative.

CompTel is currently working on structural separation issues, so that incumbent carriers' retail divisions, which compete with other ISPs, don't remain tied to wholesale divisions that supply access to ISPs.

Russell Frisby, CompTel president, believes that structural separation is the only way to level the playing field among voice and data communications providers. Recently he commented about Verizon's efforts to offer long-distance services in Pennsylvania as a factor of structural separation.

"Structural separation is the only way to make sure Verizon as well as other Baby Bell monopolies around the country, treat competitors fairly," Frisby said.

"It is appropriate that the Commission has adopted functional separation as an incentive for Verizon to fully open its market to competition," he added. "But the Commission is going to have to enforce those safeguards to ensure that companies are able to compete on a level playing field with Verizon."

Structural separation is a state-by-state battle. In the first two weeks of May CompTel filed in favor of structural separation in Tennessee, Indiana, and Michigan.

"The Pennsylvania case," Monroe said, "took two years," and even in Pennsylvania, enforcement of the ruling remains a heated issue.

CompTel is also building a Break the Bottleneck grassroots campaign to fight the Tauzin Bill, H.R. 1542, through action by member companies and their employees.

"We've been doing the same thing for twenty years," concluded Monroe, "opening monopoly markets to competition."

— End