Bad economy may be slowing RLEC line loss

Many rural carriers reported positive trends in access line loss in the first quarter, suggesting some stabilization in what has been a persistent problem for telecom carriers. And it's possible the bad economy may be helping to drive the improvement. Embarq, Frontier Communications and Iowa Telecom all reported seeing access line loss trends in the first quarter that were in some respects better than in any quarter last year, and they weren't the only ones citing good news in line counts lately. "A long line of RLECs...report[ed] improving access line trends over the course of the last couple quarters," Stifel Nicolaus analyst Bill King said. Some have suggested that the bad economy may actually be aiding access line trends because fewer people are changing addresses, which is a typical occasion for customer churn.