Category: Blog

In 1996, the FCC changed the face of our industry forever by opening the local telephone market historically dominated by incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) to competition.  It accomplished this through the 1996 Telecommunications Act (Act) by requiring ILECs to interconnect with other telecommunications providers called competitive local exchange carriers (ILECs) so these competitors could […]

With 42 years of industry experience, I rarely see services that are actually new rather than repackaged ones already available, albeit with newer technology. Recently, however, a small company called Tin Can has developed something new, and one that clearly has a market need. As the founder of Tin Can Chet Kettleson notes, Tin Can is […]

In June, the FCC requested the industry to refresh the record regarding a 2020 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Notice) in Docket 20-71 in which it proposed to eliminate ex ante (forecasted) pricing regulation of end user Telephone Access Charges (TACs) and require incumbent and competitive LECs (ILECs and CLECs) to detariff these charges.  In the […]

On August 8, 2025, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Notice) in Docket 25-50 to reexamine the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system to “explore whether fundamental changes could make these lifesaving systems more effective, efficient, and better able to serve the public’s needs.”  According to the Commission, it […]

Remember the days when customers claimed they were slammed? If you’re old like me, you remember that slamming is the illegal practice of submitting or executing a change in a consumer’s wireline telephone service provider for local, local toll, or long-distance service without their permission. Slamming emerged four decades ago, a side-effect of the Commission’s then […]