ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the different types of carriers born at divestiture and the new entrants into the emerging competitive market. Since divestiture, telecommunications carriers have traditionally been divided into categories based on the types of calls they are authorized to carry. After divestiture, network managers needed to deal with several different carriers to get a full range of services and have all call types covered. Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) owned a monopolistic geographic territory and because of this, customers within that area had no other options available for local service. LECs also provide vertical services, also known as auxiliary or custom features. Vertical services include, but are not limited to voice message, circular and regular hunt groups, call forwarding, and speed dialling. Interexchange Carriers (IXCs) are companies that since divestiture have provided long-distance services. The more well-known IXCs are the big three: AT&T, Microwave Communications Inc. (MCI), and Sprint.
