Bell Atlantic, Dsc File Suit Against At&T;

Bell Atlantic Corp. and DSC Communications Corp. filed a $3.5 billion lawsuit against AT&T Corp., accusing the company of stifling competition by building important telephone equipment to incompatible standards.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Texarkana, comes at a time when AT&T is entering the competition for local phone service and regional phone companies, such as Bell Atlantic, are jumping into the long-distance fray.

The 28-page petition seeks damages and an order forcing the company to build its communications switching equipment to industrywide standards. It alleged the AT&T practice has raised costs for local telephone companies.

AT&T’s Jim Byrnes said the company had not yet had a chance to study the complaint thoroughly.

“But from an initial review, it strikes us as specious,” Byrnes said.