Certificate of Compliance with Provisions of the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE WITH PROVISIONS
OF THE ANTITRUST PROCEDURES AND PENALTIES ACT

Plaintiff United States of America, by the undersigned attorneys, hereby certifies that, in compliance with the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act, 15 U.S.C. § 16(b)-(h) ("APPA" or "Tunney Act"), the following procedures have been followed in preparation for the entry of final judgments in both of the above-captioned matters herein:

1. Plaintiffs and defendants stipulated to the entry of the proposed Final Judgments on October 27, 2005, and these Stipulations were filed with the Court on October 27, 2005;

2. The proposed Final Judgments were filed with the Court on October 27, 2005; subsequently, corrected proposed Final Judgments were filed on November 28, 2005;⁽¹⁾

3. The Competitive Impact Statements were filed with the Court on November 16, 2005;

4. The Stipulations, proposed Final Judgments, and Competitive Impact Statements were published in the Federal Register on December 15, 2005, see 70 Fed. Reg. 74,334 (2005) (SBC/AT&T); 70 Fed. Reg. 74,350 (2005) (Verizon/MCI);

5. Separate summaries of the terms of the proposed Final Judgments were published in the Washington Post, a newspaper of general circulation in the District of Columbia, beginning on December 8, 2005 and continuing on consecutive days through December 14, 2005 (see attachment);

6. Copies of the Stipulations, proposed Final Judgments, and Competitive Impact Statements were furnished to all persons requesting them and made available on the Antitrust Division's Internet site;

7. Parties in both matters have jointly filed with the Court their respective descriptions of written or oral communications by or on behalf of the defendants, or any other person, with any officer or employee of the United States concerning the proposed Final Judgment, as required by 15 U.S.C. § 16(g). Defendants SBC Communications, Inc. and AT&T Corp. jointly filed their description on November 7, 2005, while defendants Verizon Communications Inc. and MCI, Inc. jointly filed their description on February 16, 2006;

8. The sixty-day comment period for both matters prescribed by 15 U.S.C. §16(b) and (d) for the receipt and consideration of written comments, during which the proposed Final Judgments could not be entered, commenced on December 15, 2005 and ended on February 13, 2006;

9. As of the date of this certificate of compliance, the United States has received three comments on the proposed Final Judgments. Accordingly, the United States filed its Response to Public Comments and the comments themselves with this Court on March 21, 2006, and published the Response and the public comments in the Federal Register on April 5, 2006, see 71 Fed. Reg. 17,164 (2006); and

10. The parties in both actions have now satisfied all the requirements of the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act, 15 U.S.C. § 16(b)-(h), as a condition for entering the proposed Final Judgments, and it is now appropriate for the Court to make the necessary public interest determinations required by 15 U.S.C. § 16(e) and to enter the proposed Final Judgments.

FOOTNOTES

1. All subsequent references to the "proposed Final Judgments" are to the corrected proposed Final Judgments.

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that copies of the foregoing Certificate of Compliance with Provisions of the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act were served by first-class mail, postage prepaid, the 5th day of April, 2006 upon each of the parties listed below: