1. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 marks the dawn of interconnection in the United States because ______________________.

2. Point-to-point gateways hinder the ability of CLECs to do business with multiple carriers because ____________________________.

3. Framers of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 achieved their vision of having 10 percent of the 190 million U.S. access lines competitively owned by 1999.

4. Besides deregulation and market liberalization, global regulatory mandates for such services as number portability and enhanced 911 strengthen the case for interconnection.

5. There are a variety of methods available for achieving interconnection, all of which can be made to interoperate in the global arena. The key to telecom competition is not which methods carriers choose; it is that they act to interconnect in the first place.

6. An interconnection clearinghouse or ASP simplifies interconnection and levels the playing field for all types of service providers because ____________________________.

7. Linking regional ASPs to achieve global interconnection is an extremely promising vision that is not possible today but will be possible in the near future when some advanced technologies, now in development, are available.

8. Exploding demand for DSL is identified as another driver of interconnection because ___________________.

9. If a CLEC were to get even one detail of an ILEC's 2,000 to 3,000 business rules wrong, their order would be rejected. For each and every time this occurs, the CLEC is subject to a penalty of $40 to $70 by the ILEC.