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Wireline telecommunication companies or telcos employ a wide range of unionized workers including engineers, computer programmers, service technicians, sales agents and marketers. All telcos offer Internet services, caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, voice mail, cable TV, long-distance service, local service and /or wireless communications.

The negative performance of telecom stocks like S & P Integrated telecommunication services reflect a number of factors including the incumbent carriers' declining customer bases in their traditional markets. The 4 regional Bell operating companies (RBOC's) have seen wireless rivals like Verizon communications and SBC communications make a significant entry in local telecommunication markets.

Spring fever isn't the only thing going around these days. Frame relay fever is breaking out in some sections of the country where metropolitan-based services are generating sales and excitement […]

Because of their flexibility, D-4 channel banks have always been dependable for telephone company special service networks. The recent extensive implementation of Advanced D-4 (AD4) technology throughout U S West […]

It's right there in the name. Cells are the defining characteristic of cellular technology. Take them away and you're back to the conventional mobile telephone service of the 1970s. The […]

The telecommunications industry, which serves a market of more than $ 200 billion, is in transition as technological advancements and regulatory reforms are driving traditional telecommunication service providers into a competitive environment requiring innovative strategy and financial flexibility.Despite rapid change, traditional voice service remains the sole earner of the incumbent players that have dominated the industry for decades.

Since 1986 US WEST has been providing ISDN services. With COMPASS, a user solution-drivenn program within US WEST, ISDN is playing a major role in supporting data communications applications. COMPASS, […]

Pacific Bell has launched a $100-million upgrade of its Los Angeles area network that will convert analog switches to digital and bring a wide array of new voice and data […]

As presidential elections draw near, and the D.C. circuit court sets legal processes in motion again to dismantle the system of tariffs governing alternative carriers' access to local copper, the [...]

Imagine living in a neighborhood of beautiful homes with mile-long driveways. Then imagine that your community association adopts strict bylaws limiting the use of each driveway to red BMWs only. […]

AT&T [T] Tuesday said it expects to offer local phone service to more than half of all U.S. customers by the end of the year if states continue to lower […]

'Telecom providers are embroiled in a desperate battle for the last mile.' THE POLICY BATTLE OVER THE 'LAST MILE'--the lines that connect telecom services to homes and businesses--has become particularly [...]

Poker players know that in every hand they play there ultimately is a moment of truth, the one where they have to decide whether to hold 'em or fold 'em. […]

Dial-up ISDN, which promises inexpensive digital transmissions over copper phone wires, may be living up to the old takeoff on its acronym: It Still Does Nothing. Long-distance carriers such as […]

US West Inc., GTE Corp. and Bell Atlantic Corp. have taken the lead in a rapidly expanding telephone industry response to cable's modem initiative that calls for use of existing [...]

In hopes of speeding its push for deregulation, Ameritech is asking the Justice Department and U.S. District Judge Harold Greene to approve an experiment in local loop competition in Illinois […]

Call it evolution or revolution, either way, telephone company billing systems are taking on a whole new look. Aside from the systems that keep their exchange networks operating, internal billing […]

Nynex operating company New York Telephone has teamed up with Liberty Cable of Manhattan to roll out the nation's first video dialtone system. The proposed system, scheduled to begin in […]

Its new service could cut local exchange carriers out of the value-added services pie Local exchange carriers have long looked to deployment of signaling system 7 as a way to […]

7 GTE will hold the ribbon-cutting this week for a new National Demonstration Network. The live, multisite network will be used to demonstrate advanced public network data connectivity solutions to […]

Ameritech is heralding the arrival of its Faxtra enhanced facsimile service, which was made available to customers in the Chicago area recently. Faxtra responds to some of the frustrations people […]

U.S. District Judge Harold Greene recently decided to ease information services restrictions on the Bell regional holding companies. What's next? Some observers speculate that the decision will lead the RHCs […]

Within the realm of the public network, network management has many guises. There is the management of the carriers' networks, typically handled by operations support systems (OSSs); the management of […]

The Bell regional holding companies have been working hard in recent years to erase the notion that they don't know data. It is a reputation that dies hard, and one […]

A tug-of-war over network management While pursuing this story I was warned by one network management guru, 'You are opening a Pandora's box.' The box is alreadly open. Fortune 1000 […]

Washington, D.C. At the possible risk of crippling telephone competition, computer industry heavyweights are pressuring the government to ease telecom regulations so regional Bell operating companies can more quickly deploy […]

If you or your company's employees are having trouble getting all the local phone lines you need, take a moment to shed a sympathetic tear for Harold and Evelyn Chamberlain […]

Before frame relay, private lines, asynchronous transfer mode or Internet services, the responsibility for most carriers ended at the door of a customer's building. But for the past five years, […]

The Bell regional holding companies apparently have concluded that data services are where the growth is. Following Bell Atlantic's lead, Ameritech and U S West last week said they plan […]

The choices are as clear as they are grim for the Baby Bells these days. The regional Bell operating companies (RBOC) can either revamp their customer-support systems to keep their […]

For the average customer, the telecom bill to be signed into law next week will mean nothing short of complete confusion. Already deluged with ads for long-distance, voice mail, caller […]

Pacific Bell Information Services is developing a solution for users who want one super-mailbox for voice mail, E-mail, and faxes. PBIS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pacific Bell, plans to initially […]

Regional Bell Operating Companies are locked in combat with local cable operators in a pell mell struggle to provide switched bandwidth on demand to businesses and households. Hamstringing the RBOCs […]

Philadelphia-based Independence Blue Cross has adopted Bell Atlantic Public Data Network (PDN), a packet-based service, as a means of helping its member pharmacists obtain quick verification of subscribers' insurance coverage […]

Competitive pressure is beginning to make its present felt in the local exchange network. Although local exchange carriers have complained for years about the threat of bypass, they are now […]

Fed up with its stalled negotiations with the cable industry, the NAB is threatening to play the 'telco card' again. But having heard the same story from the NAB, most [...]

TELCO ENTRY NOT BLACK-AND-WHITE ISSUE Although the cable industry continues to remain steadfast in its opposition to letting regional Bell operating companies (RBOC's) own cable systems within their own service [...]

Polling the planners, strategists and product managers at the major telephone companies normally reaffirms that the local exchange carriers are no monolith. Their opinions, plans and sense of timing are […]

Pacific Bell last week became the first Bell operating company to make primary rate interface ISDN capabilities commercially available on a widespread basis. The local exchange carrier introduced integrated services […]