Global Telecommunications Primer
MORGAN STANLEY DEAN WITTER Equity Research June 1999 Global Telecommunications Global Telecommunications Primer A Guide to the Information Superhighway The Global Telecommunications Team 118 MORGAN STANLEY DEAN WITTER Telecommunications Service Providers: A Guide The major difference among carriers is whether they are The incumbents can be further divided between local ex- wireless or wireline operators. Some carriers specialize in change carriers and long distance carriers. Incumbent local one service, but many wireline companies overlap in that exchange carriers (ILECs) held (and, in some cases, still they have units or subsidiaries that operate in the wireless hold) the dominant position in the local calling market. In market. These companies are grouped in the wireline cate- most markets, this dominant position is being eroded by the gory, since that still forms the primary component of their entrance of competitors. Like the dominant local players, business. The wireless companies can be further divided the incumbent long distance carriers once (and often still do) between those providing mobile telephony and those offer- held a dominant or monopolistic position. Long distance ing paging services. Some wireless providers offer both carriers, regardless of whether they are incumbents or not, mobile telephony and paging. are considered to be interexchange carriers (IXCs). Unless they simply resell another IXC’s lines, interexchange carri- We have put telecommunications service providers into one ers own the switching and transmission equipment (fiber of seven categories, and in some cases more than one cate- optic cables, microwave towers, multiplexing equipment, gory. Throughout the world, the names of the categories and switches) that carry long distance calls.
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