05-26-2001

TECHNOLOGY: Getting Past the Jargon

ILECs: Incumbent local-exchange carriers. These are the Baby Bells, the
companies that have built up and operated the nation's telephone system.
Before 1998, there were seven Bells, each of which had a regional
monopoly; now there are four, and they are expanding into other
communications businesses.


DSL: Digital subscriber line. The technology allows the Bell companies to
squeeze huge amounts of Internet data through old-style copper telephone
wires.


CLECs: Competitive local-exchange carriers. These are phone companies
competing against the Bells. Many were created following the 1996
Telecommunications Act, which established regulations to help
them.


Unbundling: The term used by the government to describe the legal process
by which regulators set "fair market" prices for the rental of
the Bell networks' components to rival service providers.


Cable broadband: The conversion of cable-TV networks to provide
high-capacity Internet communications to and from households. This sector
is largely unregulated by Washington, and it loathes taking too prominent
a position in the debate over the Bells' broadband plans, for fear that
Congress may decide to impose similar regulations on it.


Open access: The argument that government should try to prevent
telecommunications companies from steering their customers toward one
source of information or entertainment over another.


Jeffords goes here




National Journal