Phone Call Recorder

clec

See Competitive Local Exchange Carrier. Competitive local exchange carrier (clec). Created by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a CLEC is a service provider that is in direct competition with an incumbent service provider. CLEC is often used as a general term for any competitor, but the term actually has legal implications. To become a CLEC, a service provider must be granted "CLEC status" by a state's Public Utilities Commission. In exchange for the time and money spent to gain CLEC status, the CLEC is entitled to co-locate its equipment in the incumbent's central office, which saves the CLEC considerable expense. Local exchange carrier is a regulatory term in telecommunications for so-called local telephone company. It is also referred to as LEC for short. In the United States, wireline telephone companies are divided into two large categories: long distance (interexchange carrier, or IXCs) and local (local exchange carrier, or LECs). This structure is a result of 1984 divestiture of then regulated monopoly carrier AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph). The divestiture created local exchange carriers for management of local telephone lines and switches, and provision of local phone services within their business area, as well as the long-distance calls originating or terminating in their business area. The companies are called Baby Bells, or RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies). The local phone calls are defined as calls originating and terminating within a LATA, local access and transport area, which is defined by the Federal Communications Commission. All the Baby Bells, as well as other LECs, typically operate businesses in more than one LATA. Yet their services of local telephone calls are still defined by LATA boundaries, not their business areas.

List of telephony terms:

3gpp - a-law - abbreviated dialing - adsl - ani - answering machine - apn - automatic ring back - b-channel - baud - bell 202 modem - bit rate - bonding - bri - busy signal - cable modem - call-progress tones - call accounting - call capture - call forwarding - call originator - call park - call pick-up - call transfer - call waiting - call waiting deluxe - called party - caller id - caller id spoofing - calling party - carrier wave - cbr - ccitt - cdma - cdma2000 - cellular repeater - celp - channel - clec - clock rate - codec - collect call - conference - conference call - crc - csd - d-channel - data compression - device driver - dial-up - dial - dial tone - direct-inward-dialing - direct distance dialing - distinctive ring - dnis - dsl - dsp - dtmf - dtr - duplex - echo cancellation - edge - extension - fax - fcc - fdma - fidonet - follow-me - g.711 - g.723.1 - g.723 - g.726 - g.lite - gprs - gps - gsm - h.323 - harmonic - headphones - hscsd - hspda - iad - idsn - internet call waiting - isp - ivr - jack plug - local loop - long distance - microcontroller - mobile phone - modem - modulation - mu-law - music-on-hold - night service - off-hook - on-hook - pabx - pager - payphone - pbx - pcm - pots - prank call - precise tone plan - pstn - pulse dialling - push to talk - ring modulation - ring tone - ringback - ringing signal - rj11 - roaming - serial communications - serial port - signal noise - sim - simplex - sit - sms - softmodem - switchboard operator - tapi - tdma - telecommunications - telemarketing - telephone - telephone call - telephone card - telephone company - telephone exchange - telephone line - telephone number - telephone numbering plan - telephone operator - telephone switchboard - telephony - tts - twisted pair - umts - v.32 - v.32bis - v.34 - v.42bis - vbr - vertical service code - voicemail - voip - vox - wap - wav - wi-fi - wimax - wire