TELECOMMUNICATIONS

A federal appeals court has ruled that long-distance carriers are not entitled to the low interconnection rates that local phone companies must offer to competing firms. In order to spur competition in the historically monopolistic local phone business, last year’s telecommunications reform required Baby Bells and other incumbents to charge cost-based rates to competitors that wanted to tie into the local networks. The Competitive Telecommunications Assn., a Washington-based trade group representing 220 long-distance and local service providers, argued that long-distance firms should be entitled to the lower interconnection fees as well. But the Federal Communications Commission ruled that only local carriers should get the low rates, and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the FCC’s decision.