Skip to main content
First, one should note this shift from landlines to mobile telephone lines, which is changing the basis of competition for traditional telecommunications carriers, Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILEC) and Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC), alike. Higher end services, such as data, are now driving the thinking at the big carriers, which see their landline numbers declining. This is ironic for them I'm sure, because for a while people were adding lines for faxes and dial-up modems and they could hardly keep pace.