Press Release

    The company received authority to operate as a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) under the state’s 1993 telecommunications law, called Chapter 30, and the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. Both laws are designed to open the local phone market to competition. The company joins approximately 50 other CLECs with authority to operate in the state.

    The PUC determined that CoreComm had sufficient technical, financial and managerial resources to provide local telephone service. The commission granted the certificate of public convenience conditioned on the company’s compliance with all provisions of the Public Utility Code.

    The Delaware company had provisional authority to provide some CLEC services during the time its application was being processed. The company may expand existing services or provide new services consistent with state and federal law.

    CLECs compete with local phone companies by packaging services and offering customers pricing plans tailored to their needs. Typical business services include direct inward dialing, call forwarding and transfer, call pickup and intercom. Residential services include, for example, call waiting, caller-ID, and speed dialing. CLECs may also sell cellular phone service.

    Companies like CoreComm reach their customers in several ways. They can use the existing phone network, in which case they purchase services from the local phone company at wholesale rates approved by the PUC and then resell them to their customers.

    Some decide to build a new network and install telephone lines to connect to their customers. Others use a combination of the methods by leasing parts of the existing system and interconnecting the telecommunications equipment of the two companies.

    For a list of PUC-approved CLECs, or additional press releases, please visit our Internet home page at http://puc.paonline.com.