The FCC completed work on a set of rules.

The rules are designed to let AT&T; and the Bell telephone companies offer information services without discriminating against competitors. The Federal Communications Commission has been working since 1985 on the framework that includes accounting rules designed to ensure that users of conventional telephone service are not subsidizing the cost of the new services. The rules will allow American Telephone & Telegraph and the seven Baby Bells, spun off in the breakup of AT&T;, to offer new services such as burglar and fire alarm monitoring and message storage, rather than establish separate companies to provide them.