Given up on the promise of end-to-end, integrated voice, data, and video services? A new breed of CLECs may finally make good on it. These competitive local exchange carriers, otherwise known as ICPs (integrated communications providers), pack several local and long-distance services—traditional dial tone, Internet access, VPNs (virtual private networks), and frame relay—onto one local access circuit. Setup is simple: Net managers connect LAN gear such as FRADs (frame relay access devices), PBXs, and routers to a box called an IAD (integrated access device) that ICPs install at the corporate site.
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