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The article focuses on competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC) in the U.S. According to the latest report by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), there were nearly 33 million access lines provided by the CLECs at the end of 2004, an increase of 3 percent over the prior six month total of 32 million. Now, keep in mind that "CLEC" here refers to any carrier that is not the incumbent in a particular service territory, and therefore includes lines provided by independent telephone companies "out of region," as well as cable TV lines provided using time division multiplex technology. Of course, that was before February, when the FCC issued its report and order overturning the unbundled network element-provisioned (UNE-P) regime, putting competitive carriers in a state of shock. Nearly 60 percent of all the CLEC local access lines were affected directly by the decision, which dramatically restricted wholesale rates and access. Another apparent reason for the unusually quiet demeanor is partly that most CLECs with significant legacy operations haven't really settled into their full bore "post-UNE" business operations, much less begun to fully transition to any sort of new platform. Still, since the late spring, the CLECs have been unusually quiet, at least in part because many of them have been absorbed in negotiations with the incumbent local exchange carriers to convert their UNE-P contracts into wholesale agreements. |
