Ruling over phone switches may disrupt Las Vegas service, some analysts say.

Publication: Las Vegas Review-Journal (Las Vegas, NV)

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Las Vegas Review-Journal

Byline: John G. Edwards

Jun. 29--Telephone customers need not worry about temporarily losing service as the result of a recent federal regulatory change. Or do they?

Analysts disagree about the local impact, although they agree it wouldn't be the first time Las Vegas residents and small businesses have temporarily lost telephone service when a new, competitive telephone service went out of business.

The potential trigger this time is an appeals court decision that threw out the federal regulatory requirement that former monopoly phone companies must lease the use of their telephone switches to competitors at discounted prices. Switches are the devices that route telephone calls.

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 14 refused to consider an appeal by AT&T and MCI Communications, leaving the lower court decision in place.

As a result, so-called competitive local exchange carriers, or CLECs, that...

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