GTE Sues 5 Baby Bells, Netscape and Yahoo

GTE Corp. filed an antitrust suit against five regional Bell telephone companies and two leading Internet companies for allegedly squeezing GTE and other rivals out of the Internet Yellow Pages market. GTE, a Stamford, Conn.-based telecommunications group, asked the federal court in Washington, D.C., to bar the Baby Bells from continuing to offer their joint Internet Yellow Pages product. The suit also asked the court to order Internet access providers Netscape Communications Corp. and Yahoo Inc. to return GTE to the Internet access position it enjoyed before the Baby Bells combined their Internet Yellow Pages offerings. GTE said the Baby Bells had produced competing Internet Yellow Pages before agreeing to combine them earlier this year. The companies then paid Netscape and Yahoo what GTE called a “substantial premium” for a dominant position on the Internet. Yahoo said it had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment. Netscape and the Baby Bells companies did not return calls seeking comment.