Local telephone service is the provision of telecommunications networks and services within a limited geographic region. Traditionally, local telephone service was provided by small companies based in given cities and towns as opposed to larger, national or international companies. When communications outside of the local area provided for by these companies were need, a call was patched through long distance networks that were, until de-regulation, operation mainly by AT&T. Some providers of local services were regional Bell operating companies, but not all local companies were a regional Bell operating company or tied to one at the local level, especially after de-regulation. After de-regulation, these regional Bell operating companies became known as Local access and transport areas but mainly kept providing the same technical services despite being under a different type of corporate structure.
Many communities in the United States had local telephone companies and in rural areas, up until around the early 1980s (perhaps later in some cases) party lines were commonplace. The local telephone company was responsible for providing equipment alongside services to their customers in most cases although over time, as technology changed, so did the nature of the technical services thus provided. In AZ, CO, IA, ID, MN, MT, ND, NE, NM, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY. At one time—again mainly in more rural locations—telephones were leased from the local phone company rather than sold outright to customers. Many customers in rural regions had rotary telephones that were leased prior to the 1980s. Rural customers in some instances ended up paying tenfold the value of their phones as they leased them for decades—though the lease system was not set up to encourage this situation. More recently, local telephone companies would provide PBX (Private Branch Exchange) services for small local businesses that needed these switchboard and internal telecommunications services. Local telephone companies have also become very involved in many cases in the provision of Internet DSL and dial-up services.
A local telephone service would terminate at the central office (telephone exchange), which is a structure that contains the hardware needed to switch calls from local lines to long distance networks. Thereby, when a call was placed by a customer outside the local calling area, the central office would switch the call to the respective long distance network. Qwest Local Phone Service. Central offices became important with advances in technology because they allowed for more services to be offered in many areas and their technical abilities improved; services such as call-waiting, three-way calling, and voice-mail were first offered via central office-based technology although these services are now available also through PBXs for those who own such. The role of the local phone company can be mainly seen as one of providing not only the technology and service-people to a given community but in interfacing with the large long distance carriers. Prior to the advent of cell phones, most phone calls were made via landlines and local companies were thereby involved in some capacity in this communication. De-regulation and the culture of cell phones has reduced the need in some ways for local telephone services but in other regards, such as the provision of Internet services and standard landlines, local companies still have a very important role to play in the telecommunications industry.
Companies Currently Offering Local Telephone Service in The U. S.
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