Switched access lines served by competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC) in the U.S. totaled 25 million at end of 2002, representing 13% of total access lines in the country. The total number of CLEC end-user switched access lines rose by 14% in the second half of 2002, an acceleration in growth compared to the 10% rise for the first half of 2002. Other highlights of the newly released FCC report on local phone competition includes:
- at the end of 2002, there were some 163 million incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) switched access lines, 25 million CLEC switched access lines, and 136 million mobile wireless telephone service subscriptions.
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during the second half of 2002, cable-telephony lines increased by 15% to 3.0 million lines, from 2.6 million. The 3.0 million reported cable-telephony lines constituted about 12% of switched access lines provided by CLECs and about 2% of total switched access lines.
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58% of CLEC lines serve residential and small business customers, while 78% of ILEC lines serve these same market. In other words, a greater percentage of CLEC operations focus on business customers.
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CLECs were serving about 26% of their switched access lines over their own local loop facilities. To serve the remainder, CLECs either resold the services of other carriers or used unbundled network elements.
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The largest numbers of CLEC lines were reported for New York, followed by California and Texas
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ILECs reported providing about 37% more UNE loops with switching to other carriers at the end of December 2002 than they reported six months earlier (10.2 million compared to 7.5 million) and about 5% more UNE loops without switching (about 4.3 million compared to 4.1 million).
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There were 174 ILECs and 112 CLECs in the US at the end of 2002. (reporting of state-level data is mandatory for carriers with at least 10,000 switched access lines, or at least 10,000 mobile wireless telephone service subscribers, in a state)
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There were 85 mobile wireless service providers in the US at the end of 2002.
The full report is available online (22 pages)http://www.fcc.gov/wcb/stats