The Commission regulates, to varying degrees, 16 incumbent local exchange companies (ILECs), 193 competing local providers (CLPs), 379 interexchange long distance carriers (IXCs), 215 payphone service providers (PSPs), and 22 shared tenant services providers (STS).
The Commission does not regulate telephone membership corporations, cable providers, satellite providers, commercial mobile radio service (including cellular service and paging service), data and internet service providers, or the rates of IXCs and CLPs.
The largest ILECs operating in the State include AT&T North Carolina (AT&T) with 1,714,943 access lines; Carolina Telephone and Telegraph Company (Embarq) with 1,011,712 access lines; Verizon South, Inc. (Verizon) with 268,073 access lines; and Central Telephone Company (Embarq) with 235,598 access lines. The other 12 ILECs in the State serve a total of 499,049 access lines. CLPs provide service to 746,433 access lines in the State, with 377,048 of those lines being residential lines and 369,385 of those lines being business lines.