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Florida's Telecommunications Industry Competition Continues to Increase(Targeted News Service Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Aug. 1 -- The Florida Public Service Commission issued the following news release: Florida consumers continue to migrate from wireline service to wireless and cable/Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, while businesses are using more competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), according to the Florida Public Service Commission's Report on the Status of Competition in the Telecommunications Industryin 2013. A few Florida telecommunications industry "firsts" also occurred during 2013, with AT&T reporting as many business wirelines as residential lines, and CLEC-reported business access lines gaining a market share of 51 percent, leaving the incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) a minority in the wireline business market. According to the report, CLECs' market share of total (residential and business) access lines increased last year, from 26 to 32 percent. Nearly as many wireless handsets in Florida as there are people--approximately 18.45 million--were in service, and it is estimated that 2.8 million Florida residents were VoIP subscribers, an increase of about 5 percent from 2012. AT&T, CenturyLink, and Verizon remained the three largest ILECS providing wireline services in Florida. In the aggregate, local exchange carriers in Florida saw a 7 percent decrease in total wirelines from last year. By comparison, residential access lines decreased 18 percent from 2012. Delivered to the Florida Legislature by August 1 each year, the PSC telecommunications report compiled data from 290 Florida telecommunications companies for a 12-month period ending December 31, 2013. For the entire report, please go to this PSC web address: http://www.floridapsc.com/publications/reports.aspx and look under Telecommunications. For additional information, visit www.floridapsc.com. Follow the PSC on Twitter, @floridapsc (http://www.twitter.com/floridapsc). CC AutoTriage5rn-140802-30FurigayJane-4817609 30FurigayJane (c) 2014 Targeted News Service |