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Technology Stocks : IDT *(idtc) following this new issue?* -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HVN who wrote (1142)	10/10/1998 12:00:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 30916

HVN, >> With regards to your reasoning behind IDT's long term prospects - that's pretty much the very same case for the 1100 other CLECs.<< Just a point of clarification for those who may not be up on these classifications, if you please. Your mentioning 1100 CLECs... are you referring to the recent startups known as competitive local exchange carriers? Or are you referring to the remnants of the past, where there were once 1700 independent telephone companies throughout the US, now down to about 1100 through consolidations and buyouts? Some of these independent telephone operators (ITOs) are very large, like Lincoln Telephone, while many are very small, resembling rural mom and pop operations. Of course, as CLECs mature, they enter into the class of ITOs (although I think that many of them would be loathe to accept this moniker)... but during their nascent stages I tend to think of them differently, while they sew their oats and find out what they want to be when they grow up. One never knows... take a look at the two original CLECs, now a part of the two largest Global Carriers, ATT and MCIWorldcom (the CLECs being TCG and MFS, respectively). During the ascendancies of each of these CLECs, formerly CAPs, they acquired Internet Service Companies and delved into Long Distance in their own ways. These are not typical actions of ITOs of the past, at least not traditionally, although this too is changing. There is, or at least was, a difference at one point. Especially from a regulatory perspective and one of embedded presence. There is certainly a difference in their abilities to ramp up and gain acceptance in the world of global PSTN and SS7/C7 networking, since most CLECs are still going through growing pains, while the ITOs have been established for a long time. Conversely, CLECs tend to be more new-age and agressive, seeking to snare new markets with newer technologies, while the ITOs, for the most part, have been rather frozen in their ways much like the BOCs have been perceived, tending to be legacists and utility-like in their mindset. Like I said, just a point of clarification, since I feel that you may have been referring to the ITOs. Which brings up another question, and that is how many bona fide CLECs are actually out there today? Unless you were correct in you initial assessment... Hope you don't mind, and FWIW, Regards, Frank Coluccio