Local telephone companies

Local telephone companies are known by a variety of names according to their function. The following acronyms and terms are most commonly used to describe telephone companies.

LEC - Local exchange carrier. Every local phone company is an LEC, for example, Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company.

IXC - Interexchange carrier. Long-distance companies carry calls between exchanges (or LATAs) and are known as IXCs. One of the largest wholesalers of long-distance service is a company whose name is IXC.

BOC - Bell Operating Company. The 22 local telephone companies that were originally owned by AT&T were transferred to seven Regional Bell Operating Companies. Mountain Bell, Northwestern Bell, and Pacific Northwest Bell were all transferred to the RBOC U S West.

RBOC - Regional Bell Operating Company. At the time of divestiture, AT&T spun off 22 BOCs, which were managed by the seven RBOCs. Since then, the RBOCs and GTE have dominated the local service marketplace. The seven RBOCs were Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell, and U S West. Southwestern Bell (now known as SBC Communications) has merged with Pacific Telesis and Ameritech. Bell Atlantic has merged with NYNEX and GTE. Now, there are only four RBOCs.

ILEC - Independent local exchange carrier, a local carrier that is not a part of the Bell System. GTE long boasted that it is the “largest independent LEC.”

CAP - Competitive access providers. These small entrepreneurial companies provide “access” to the public-switched network and bypass the incumbent LEC, such as Teleport Communications Group in the 1980s.

CLEC - Competitive local exchange carrier. After the Telecom Act of 1996, a multitude of CLECs started up, such as Adelphia, Nextlink, and SNiP. Due to changing market conditions and financial mismanagement, numerous CLECs have filed for bankruptcy, such as e.spire and Teligent. In addition to long-distance service, AT&T now offers local service in many markets, so AT&T can be called a CLEC.

ILEC - Incumbent local exchange carrier. If a CLEC such as Nextlink is operating in BellSouth’s region, Nextlink will refer to BellSouth as the incumbent carrier.