Section 271

Section 271 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 describes the conditions by which a BOC (Bell Operating Company) may enter the market to provide interLATA (Local Access and Transport Area) services, long distance in particular, within the region where they operate as the dominant local telephone service provider. The Act mandates that BOCs must open their local telephone markets to competition as a precondition to entry into the long distance market. The term 271 has come to be used as shorthand for referring to the strategic efforts of the BOCs to prove competition exists, and thereby gain FCC approval to provide interLATA long distance service. Although final authority to approve a BOC's entry into the LD (Long Distance) market is given to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), Congress provided in Section 271 a checklist to guide the FCC's assessment of local market competition.

The checklist points are (summarized):
1. Interconnection for any requesting telecommunications carrier with the BOC's network that is at least equal in quality to that provided by the BOC to itself.
2. Non-discriminatory access to network elements.
3. Nondiscriminatory access to the poles, ducts, conduits, and rights-of-way owned or controlled by the BOC at just and reasonable rates.
4. Local loop transmission from the central office to the customer's premises, unbundled from local switching or other services.
5. Local transport from the trunk side of a wireline local exchange carrier switch unbundled from switching or other services.
6. Local switching unbundled from transport, local loop transmission, or other services.
7. Non-discriminatory access to 911, directory assistance and operator call completion services.
8. White pages directory listings for customers of the other carrier's telephone exchange service.
9. Nondiscriminatory access to telephone numbers for assignment to the other carrier's telephone exchange service customers.
10. Nondiscriminatory access to databases and associated signaling necessary for call routing and completion.
11. Telecommunications number portability.
12. Nondiscriminatory access to services or information to allow the requesting carrier to implement local dialing parity (the ability to complete a connection without the use of additional access codes).
13. Reciprocal compensation arrangements.
14. Telecommunications services available for resale.