Requests Grow for Bell Probes

A trade group for phone companies competing with the Baby Bells is expected to ask Tennessee’s attorney general today to investigate whether a $40-million Bell lobbying campaign violates state antitrust laws, bringing to six the number of states where such action is being sought.

The Competitive Carriers of the South is urging Atty. Gen. Paul G. Summers to determine whether the Bells violated Tennessee laws by allegedly arm-twisting suppliers and manufacturers to join the lobbying campaign, which was designed to call for an end to federal and state price regulations.

A copy of the letter to be sent to Summers was obtained by The Times.

The antitrust issues arose after The Times published details from an internal memo about an Oct. 20 dinner attended by Bell chief executives and their counterparts at telecommunications equipment companies. The Bell companies worked through their trade group, the U.S. Telecom Assn., to gather support for the lobbying campaign.

USTA, which hosted the dinner and wrote the memo, has denied that antitrust laws were broken and has called the allegations “baseless and slanderous.”