Local Telephone Competition

The Federal Communications Commission released new data on local telephone service competition in the United States. As of December 2007, customers obtained local telephone service by utilizing approximately 129.7 million incumbent LEC switched access lines, 28.7 million CLEC switched access lines, and 249.2 million mobile telephony service subscriptions. The 28.7 million lines reported by CLECs is about 18% of the 158.4 million total end-user switched access lines. Of the 28.7 million CLEC end-user switched access lines, 8.4 million lines were provided over coaxial cable connections. The 8.4 million lines represent about 72% of the 11.7 million end-user switched access lines that CLECs reported providing over their own local loop facilities. There was at least one CLEC serving customers in 81% of the nation's Zip Codes at the end of December 2007.