Basic Elements of Local Telecom Infrastructure

Again, in somewhat simplistic terms, the basic elements (media) of local telecom infrastructure can be characterized as Wireline (phone lines) and Wireless (cellular, etc.) which are provided by Local Exchange Carriers -- perhaps with a monopoly or duopoly franchise for a given geographic area. Other potential telecom infrastructure providers (Competitive Access Providers, Personal Communication Services, Cable TV, satellite, power utilities and even local governments) can sometimes offer alternative services in a given city or community.

However, alternative telecom provider's offerings are usually delimited by infrastructure (i.e facilities or non-facilities based), geographic (i.e. downtown corridor only), capability (i.e. voice, with limited or no data), customer service (i.e. ratio of experienced employees to customers) or other operational limitations that place significant self-inflicted constraints on their cost, availability, reliability and quality of services.

Physical telecom transmission media is most often referred to as "outside plant," which comprises any combination of copper cables, coaxial cables, fiber optic cables, and/or wireless antenna placements. These facilities are utilized to connect subscriber (customer) residence or business locations to communication hubs most often referred to as "wire centers" or "central offices."

These hubs are interconnected (via above-mentioned media options) with other similar hubs within the city or community, and each hub contains one or more "switches" that are utilized to establish physical or virtual connections between subscribers. Ultimately, these hubs cross-connect with multiple hubs in other locations forming a grid -- consisting of several alternate inter-network connections.

In yet another oversimplification (that's constantly subject to change, due to new technology deployment), subscriber internet access connections ride upon this underlying infrastructure in one form or another.