Regional Bell Operating Companies also known as RBOC’s . On January 8, 1982, AT&T Corp. settled the suit and agreed to divest its local exchange service operating companies. Local operations were split into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies known as "Baby Bells". RBOCs were originally known as Regional Holding Companies. Three companies have the RBOCs as predecessors ,they consist of of AT&T,Verizon and Century link. (princeton.edu, 2014)
Incumbent local exchange carrier also commonly referred to as ILEC is a local telephone company during the break up of AT&T into RBOC’s. The ILEC is the former Bell System or Independent Telephone Company responsible for providing local telephone exchange services in a specified geographic area. GTE was the second largest ILEC after the Bells, but it has since been absorbed into Verizon, a RBOC. ILECs compete with competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC). When referring to the technical communities ILEC is often used just to mean a telephone provider. (princeton.edu, 2014)
CLECs evolved from the competitive access providers (CAPs) that began to offer private line and special access services in competition with the ILECs beginning in 1985. The CAPs (such as Teleport Communications Group (TCG) and Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS)) deployed fiber optic systems in the central business districts of the largest U.S. cities (New York, Chicago, Boston, etc.) A number of state public utilities commissions, particularly New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts, encouraged this competition. (princeton.edu, 2014)
A multiple-system operator or multi-system operator (MSO) is an operator of multiple cable or direct-broadcast satellite television systems. A cable system in the United States, by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) definition, is a facility serving a single community or a distinct governmental entity, each with its own franchise agreement with the cable company. Though in the strictest sense any cable company that serves multiple communities is an MSO. (princeton.edu, 2014)
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. Internet service providers may be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privately owned.Internet services typically provided by ISPs include Internet access, Internet transit, domain name registration, web hosting, colocation. (princeton.edu, 2014)
References
princeton.edu. (2014). rbocs. new jersey .