FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION RELEASES DATA ON LOCAL TELEPHONE COMPETITION
"The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today released new
data on local telephone service competition in the United States. Twice a year, all incumbent local
exchange carriers (incumbent LECs) and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) are
required to report basic information about their local telephone service, and all facilities-based
mobile telephony providers are required to provide information about their subscribers, pursuant
to the FCC’s local telephone competition and broadband data gathering program (FCC Form 477).
Statistics released today reflect data as of June 30, 2008.
Summary Statistics
· End-user customers obtained local telephone service by utilizing approximately 124.6
million incumbent LEC switched access lines, 30.0 million CLEC switched access lines,
and 255.3 million mobile telephony service subscriptions at the end of June 2008.
· Of the 30.0 million CLEC end-user switched access lines, 9.4 million lines were provided
over coaxial cable connections. The 9.4 million lines represent about 71% of the 13.1
million end-user switched access lines that CLECs reported providing over their own local
loop facilities.
· Mobile telephony service providers reported 255.3 million subscribers at the end of June
2008, which is 17.0 million, or 7%, more than a year earlier. About 8% of these
subscribers were billed by mobile telephony service resellers.
· There was at least one CLEC serving customers in 82% of the nation’s Zip Codes at the
end of June 2008. About 97% of United States households resided in those Zip Codes.
Moreover, multiple carriers reported providing local telephone service in the major
population centers of the country.
· The 30.0 million lines reported by CLECs is about 19% of the 154.7 million total end-user
switched access lines reported for the end of June 2008.
· CLECs reported 12.4 million (or 14%) of the 89.6 million lines that served residential end
users and 17.7 million (or 27%) of the 64.7 million lines that served business, institutional,
and government customers."