GTE Pacifica assumes new name

The Commonwealth’s leading telecommunications industry player GTE Pacifica is assuming a new name beginning Dec. 1, 2000, following the merger of its parent company with Bell Atlantic middle of the year.

GTE Pacifica and Micronesian Telecommunications Company, as well as its mainland United States subsidiaries including Bell Atlantic, will be known Verizon beginning Friday, according to staff administrator for marketing and communication Kerry Deets.

Ms. Deets said the new name will be publicly launched on Friday through a gathering in front of the company’s office in Chalan Lau Lau, which is expected to be attended by GTE Pacifica customers, as well as company officials and employees.

“The merger took effect in August of this year which basically gave us enough time to prepare for the name-change,” she said. The new company name was officially announced to GTE Pacifica employees Saturday.

According to Ms. Deets, only the company’s name will change as she stressed that all the services and products will remain except that these will be offered to the customers through an improved and better way of delivery.

“What we are planning to do is offer a lot of promotional activities like better pricing on both landlines and cellular telephone services, as well as in our Internet services,” she told an interview, adding that the new name and logo will be reflected in the customers’ December billing.

Government officials assured that telecommunications use in the Northern Marianas will remain at an affordable level despite the merger of United States telephone giants GTE Corporation and Bell Atlantic Corporation.

The merger extends important regulatory safeguards to the Northern Marianas. Under the modified merger agreement, the CNMI would be included in GTE/Bell’s enhanced Lifeline plan designed to offer discounts and other incentives to make telephone use more affordable in the CNMI.

The modified agreement also extends protections to the CNMI to facilitate the rollout of broadhand Internet or digital subscriber line services and apply service quality reporting obligations.

It also guarantees certain enforcement conditions and alternative dispute mediation that were not part of the telecom companies’ original merger plan. (Aldwin R. Fajardo)