Info about Voip

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Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC)

It is another name for local telephone companies or telcos.


Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) include


• Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), holding companies for about two dozen telephone companies that were created by the divestiture of AT&T in 1984.


• Other smaller independent telephone companies, especially in rural areas


• The name Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier basically means that ILECs are


• Incumbent:


They are the ones who own and control the local loop wiring infrastructure that provides telephone services to customers in their particular area.


• Local:


They service specific regions of the United States, in contrast to inter-exchange carriers (IXCs), which provide long-distance services from coast to coast.


• Exchange:


They provide telephone exchange services through their central office (CO) switching facilities, enabling customers to dial and make calls.


• Carriers:


They "carry" phone line signals and generally provide a wide range of telecommunication services as well.


In contrast, Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) are companies that either


• Lease local loop services from ILECs to provide customers with such services as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), T-carrier, frame relay, and so on (DSL is the most popular CLEC offering), or


• Provide their own connection to customers, typically fiber-optic connections for businesses in dense urban areas to provide such services as Voice over IP (VoIP) and Metropolitan Ethernet. Cable TV (CATV) operators generally are not referred to as CLECs even though they may provide services such as Internet access that "compete" with other Local Exchange Carriers (LECs).