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1. Long distance and the telecommunications industry

The dedicated long distance service market can more or less be broken down into three tiers of providers. At the top are the largest providers, including AT&T, Sprint and MCI. These firms offer quality nationwide networks that can provide service practically anywhere in the U.S. They can also offer a wide array of additional telecommunications services.

The second tier of long distance service providers includes companies such as LCI, Frontier, and Cable and Wireless who don’t have quite the same breadth of availability as the largest firms. Typically they utilize a mix of their own line installations and leased networks to provide service. They’ll offer the same dedicated long distance services as the top tier, but may not be as efficient in accommodating large-scale traffic.

The final tier consists of telecommunications firms with a typically regional focus. Usually these telecommunications firms lease their network capacity from the largest providers and are known as “resellers.” Although these localized telecommunications firms usually offer comparable line quality to the largest telecommunications service providers, they can’t provide you with a lot of the extra services you might need.

Although the quality and breadth of service varies between these three tiers, the basic concept of long distance service hasn’t changed much since the days of Ma Bell: Your dedicated long distance service provider will charge you money based on how much time your business spends on the phone with people outside of your area code. Some long distance providers will offer the same rate, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Others offer cheaper dedicated long distance rates during "off-peak" hours. Others still have three sets of dedicated long distance rates-- daytime, evening and weekend rates.

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