Topic summary
ILEC
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Incumbent local exchange carrier.
Canada
In Canada, ILECs are the original telephone companies such as Telus (BC Tel and Alberta Government Telephones), SaskTel, Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS Allstream), Bell Canada and Aliant, as well as any other company that previously held a monopoly to serve a community and continues to do so, or a successor company if it is bought and absorbed. ILECs are obligated to serve the entire exchange area as a "provider of last resort", while CLECs can choose which locations to serve, be it by facilities of their own or by resale of services of an ILEC or another CLEC.