Incumbent local exchange carrier
Encyclopedia
An ILEC, short for incumbent
local exchange
carrier
, is a local telephone
company in the United States
that was in existence at the time of the breakup of AT&T
into the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), also known as the "Baby Bells." The ILEC is the former Bell System or Independent Telephone Company responsible for providing local telephone exchange services in a specified geographic area. GTE
was the second largest ILEC after the Bells, but it has since been absorbed into Verizon, an RBOC. ILECs compete with Competitive Local Exchange Carrier
s (CLEC). When referring to the technical communities ILEC is often used just to mean a telephone provider.
In Canada, the term ILEC refers to the original telephone companies such as Telus (BC Tel and AGT), SaskTel, Manitoba Telephone Systems (MTS Allstream), Bell Canada Enterprises and Aliant.
(LEC) that:
The Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) may, by rule, provide for the treatment of an LEC (or class or category thereof) as an ILEC if:
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
local exchange
Local exchange carrier
Local Exchange Carrier is a regulatory term in telecommunications for the local telephone company.In the United States, wireline telephone companies are divided into two large categories: long distance and local...
carrier
Common carrier
A common carrier in common-law countries is a person or company that transports goods or people for any person or company and that is responsible for any possible loss of the goods during transport...
, is a local telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
company in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that was in existence at the time of the breakup of AT&T
Bell System divestiture
The Bell System divestiture, or the breakup of AT&T, was initiated by the filing in 1974 by the U.S. Department of Justice of an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T. The case, United States v...
into the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), also known as the "Baby Bells." The ILEC is the former Bell System or Independent Telephone Company responsible for providing local telephone exchange services in a specified geographic area. GTE
GTE
GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System....
was the second largest ILEC after the Bells, but it has since been absorbed into Verizon, an RBOC. ILECs compete with Competitive Local Exchange Carrier
Competitive local exchange carrier
A competitive local exchange carrier , in the United States, is a telecommunications provider company competing with other, already established carriers ....
s (CLEC). When referring to the technical communities ILEC is often used just to mean a telephone provider.
In Canada, the term ILEC refers to the original telephone companies such as Telus (BC Tel and AGT), SaskTel, Manitoba Telephone Systems (MTS Allstream), Bell Canada Enterprises and Aliant.
Definition
ILEC, with respect to an area in the United States, is a local exchange carrierLocal exchange carrier
Local Exchange Carrier is a regulatory term in telecommunications for the local telephone company.In the United States, wireline telephone companies are divided into two large categories: long distance and local...
(LEC) that:
- On the date of enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996Telecommunications Act of 1996The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of United States telecommunications law in nearly 62 years, amending the Communications Act of 1934. This Act, signed by President Bill Clinton, was a major stepping stone towards the future of telecommunications, since this was the...
, provided telephone exchange service in such area- And on such date of enactment, was deemed to be a member of the exchange carrier association pursuant to the Code of Federal RegulationsCode of Federal RegulationsThe Code of Federal Regulations is the codification of the general and permanent rules and regulations published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government of the United States.The CFR is published by the Office of the Federal Register, an agency...
(C.F.R) Title 47, section 69.601(b). - Or is a person or entity that, on or after such date of enactment, became a successor or assignee of a member described in the previous bullet.
- And on such date of enactment, was deemed to be a member of the exchange carrier association pursuant to the Code of Federal Regulations
The Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) may, by rule, provide for the treatment of an LEC (or class or category thereof) as an ILEC if:
- Such carrier occupies a position in the market for telephone exchange service within an area that is comparable to the position occupied by a carrier described previously
- Such carrier has substantially replaced an ILEC described previously
- Such treatment is consistent with the public interestPublic interestThe public interest refers to the "common well-being" or "general welfare." The public interest is central to policy debates, politics, democracy and the nature of government itself...
, convenience and necessity
Duties
ILECs have the same duties of an LEC and in addition:- Duty to negotiate - The duty to negotiate in good faithGood faithIn philosophy, the concept of Good faith—Latin bona fides “good faith”, bona fide “in good faith”—denotes sincere, honest intention or belief, regardless of the outcome of an action; the opposed concepts are bad faith, mala fides and perfidy...
the particular terms and conditions of agreements to fulfill the duties described for an LEC and the specific ones for the ILEC. The requesting telecommunications carrier also has the duty to negotiate in good faith the terms and conditions of such agreements. - InterconnectionInterconnectionIn telecommunications, interconnection is the physical linking of a carrier's network with equipment or facilities not belonging to that network...
- The duty to provide, for the facilities and equipment of any requesting telecommunications carrier, interconnection with the LEC's network -- For the transmission and routing of telephone exchange service and exchange access
- At any technically feasible point within the carrier's network
- That is at least equal in quality to that provided by the LEC to itself or to any subsidiary, affiliate or any other party to which the carrier provides interconnection
- On rates, terms and conditions that are just, reasonable and nondiscriminatory, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement
- UnbundledLocal loop unbundlingLocal loop unbundling is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange to the customer's premises...
access - The duty to provide, to any requesting telecommunications carrier for the provision of a telecommunications service, nondiscriminatory access to network elements on an unbundled basis at any technically feasible point on rates, terms and conditions that are just, reasonable and nondiscriminatory in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement. An ILEC shall provide such unbundled network elementNetwork elementA network element is usually defined as a manageable logical entity uniting one or more physical devices. This allows distributed devices to be managed in a unified way using one management system....
s in a manner that allows requesting carriers to combine such elements in order to provide such telecommunications service. - Resale - The duty
- To offer for resale at wholesale rates any telecommunications service that the carrier provides at retail to subscribers who are not telecommunications carriers
- Not to prohibit, and not to impose unreasonable or discriminatory conditions or limitations on, the resale of such telecommunications service,
- Notice of changes - The duty to provide reasonable public notice of changes in the information necessary for the transmission and routing of services using that local exchange carrier's facilities or networks, as well as of any other changes that would affect the interoperability of those facilities and networks.
- ColocationColocation centreA colocation centre or colocation center , is a type of data centre where equipment space and bandwidth are available for rental to retail customers...
- The duty to provide, on rates, terms and conditions that are just, reasonable and nondiscriminatory, for physical colocation of equipment necessary for interconnection or access to unbundled network elements at the premises of the local exchange carrier, except that the carrier may provide for virtual colocation if the LEC demonstrates that physical colocation is not practical for technical reasons or because of space limitations.
External links
- ILEC agreement in PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
format. - FCC CFR Title 47
- National Exchange Carrier Association