Bell Rivals Seek Antitrust Probe in New Jersey

Competitors of regional Bell telephone companies will ask the New Jersey attorney general today to investigate whether the Bells have broken state antitrust laws, making the state the fifth where such action has been sought.

In a letter to be delivered to Atty. Gen. Peter C. Harvey, four rival companies and two of their trade groups urge a probe into whether the Bells violated New Jersey law by allegedly arm-twisting suppliers and manufacturers to join a $40-million lobbying campaign designed to end federal and state price regulations.

A copy of the letter 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 such as Lucent Technologies Inc. and Siemens.

The phone companies worked through their trade group, the U.S. Telecom Assn., to press for support for the lobbying campaign at the dinner.

USTA, which hosted the dinner and wrote the memo, has denied that antitrust laws were broken.

The association has called such allegations “baseless and slanderous.”

Bell rivals and their trade groups previously sought investigations by the Senate and House judiciary committees and attorneys general in four other states, including California.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) had said he believed the Bells’ conduct was protected by the 1st Amendment, and he had no plans to call a formal inquiry. The other requests are pending.