MCI + Verizon. AT&T + SBC. With the merger of major telephone communication players, one must ask the question: What about competition?

The Telecommunication Act of 1996 was created to promote competition. It allowed companies to build their own networks and switches so they could compete against already established carriers, such as AT&T and Verizon. It also mandated that companies could purchase services from the established carriers (those doing business before the Act was passed) at wholesale prices and resell them to consumers. These local-area companies are known as Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC). They can offer any mix of local and long distance telephone services (including Voice over Internet Protocol - VoIP) for homes and businesses, radio and television broadcasting, and cable and satellite broadcasting services.

Those CLECs which invest in their own networks are able to eliminate much of the overhead associated with establi

shed carriers (caused by their national and global infrastructures) so they pass those savings along to consumers. CLECs who resell services have no investment in the network but, because they too have less overhead, they can pass savings along to their customers. This allows CLECs to provide high-quality telecommunication products at significant savings to you - the consumer. Many CLECs also offer feature packages --such as call forwarding, caller ID, voice mail -- for free or at low prices.

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