COMPTEL's James: CLECs need more regulatory certainty

Jerry James, CEO of COMPTEL, said during the keynote speech at this week's COMPTEL Spring 2013 event that the biggest challenge its member companies face, particularly CLECs that deliver competitive services, is a lack of regulatory clarity.

The three "hottest" items the industry association is advocating for at both the state and federal regulatory level are SIP interconnection, last mile access, and special access, James said. "The network technology, as we all know, has been evolving to a managed IP network, which enables our members to offer managed services," he said. "We also need to make sure that whenever we change technology we don't change the regulatory compliance rules, and competition has to have those to stay in place." James said that with SIP interconnection, COMPTEL doesn't want to hold anyone back, but wants to enable easier ways for its members to work with large incumbent service providers so they can deliver managed services to their customer base.