FCC Blamed for Sprint’s Red Ink

GTE Corp. said it can’t predict when its Sprint long-distance service will return to profitability because of federal policies that it said favor American Telephone & Telegraph.

Chairman and Chief Executive Theodore F. Brophy told the annual meeting that the long-distance business in the United States is headed toward “remonopolization” under present federal policies. The company’s Sprint group, which includes its long-distance service, suffered a $26.5-million pretax loss in the 1985 first quarter, continuing a slide since mid-1984.

The company cited capacity limitations, which it expects to ease later this year, but Brophy said increased access charges that the company must pay for connections to local phone companies constituted the “most severe blow.”

James L. Broadhead, president and chief operating officer of the company’s communications services group, which includes Sprint, said the prospect of a return to profitability for the unit is “largely outside” GTE’s control. He called on the Federal Communications Commission to create a “fair and equitable climate.”