Contents : - Table of Contents by Author - International Engineering Consortium - Consortium Affiliated Universities - Introduction: Local Loop: A New Landscape - Part I: The Competitive Environment and Markets - Transition to the New Local Loop: Required Capabilities - Local Loop Access and Interconnection: Can CLECs Survive in the Local Market? - Winning Strategies for Local Exchange Services - Opportunities and Challenges in Broadband and Multimedia for the Local Loop - Local Number Portability: Can the Incumbents Afford It? - New Services and Revenue Opportunities in the Local Loop - Performance Standards Key to Interconnection - Winning Strategies for Growing and Sustaining Revenues in the Era of Convergence - Electronic Commerce Market Demand Versus the Potential of Loop Access Technologies - Economical Fiber-in-the-Loop - Part II: Regulatory Progress - State Progress and Problems in Interconnecting the Local Loop - Leveling the Local Playing Field: Telecommunications Reform Comes to Main Street - The Telecommunications Act of 1996: Implementation and Implications - Telecommunications Competition and Universal Service: The Essential Tradeoffs That Must Be Made - Part III: Technologies, Operations, Services, and Applications - Network Routing Scalability in ADSL Systems - Fiber Access Architectures for Broadband Services A Review of the Available Technologies - Direct Satellite Service Access Tutorial - The Best Defense Is a Good Offense - ADSL: Opportunities Along the Information CopperHighway- Clean Architectures as a Key to Flexible Growth - Time Warner: Orlando, Florida and Rochester, New York - Lessons Learned from the Deployment of Telephony Over HFC: A Case Study - Network Architecture: Which Way To Go? - Using TMN for Service Management in the Local Loop - Optimizing the Infrastructure: Past, Present, and Future - End-To-End Connectivity: The Foundation of Broadband Networks - High-Bandwidth Services Over Copper Plant - Data Services in the Local Loop - Residential Broadband Data - From POTS to Interactive Multimedia Services - Winning the Battle for Data Services in the Local Loop - Digital Video: Ready For Prime Time - Broadband Local Access Architectures - Fiber Antics: Practical Lessons in Building a Municipal Fiber-Optic Network - Early Broadband Deployment in an Electric Utility - SNMP Management for ADSL - Rejuvenated ADSL Scores High - The Role of Object-Oriented Database Technology Within Telecommunications - The Full-Service Network from a Low-Density Perspective - Business and Customer Operations: Object-Oriented Billing - Part IV: Customer Considerations and Marketing - Promotions Issues in the Competitive Local Exchange Network - Understanding End-User Selection of Information and Entertainment Channels - Data Warehousing for Marketing and Customer Care - Customer-Contact Systems: The New Competitive Battleground - Changes in Household Purchases of Telecommunications Services and the Need for Branding and Bundling - Part V: Wireless in the Loop - A Wireless Local Loop Business Case - Wireless Access - Wireless Technologies in the Local Loop: The Case for PACS - Terrestrial Wireless Access Systems for the Local Loop - Wireless Broadband Future: Utilizing 38 GHz - Radio Local Loop Based on DECT: Enhancements to Increase Capacity - Low-Tier Wireless Local Loop Radio Systems Part 1: Introduction - Low-Tier Wireless Local Loop Radio Systems Part 2: Comparison of Systems - Acronym Guide - Index