incumbent service provider meaning
An incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC), is a local telephone company which held the regional monopoly on landline service before the market was opened to competitive local exchange carriers, or the corporate successor of such a firm.n the United States, these were companies in existence at the time of the breakup of AT&T into the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), also known as the Baby Bells.. GTE was the second largest ILEC after the Bells, but it has since been absorbed into Verizon, and RBOC.