With the deregulation of local telecommunications services, a number of issues have emerged that are preventing the level of competitive service offering that could otherwise be achieved. The market is crying out for higher-speed access, faster service provisioning, and guarantees on service levels—all at a reasonable cost.

With the advent of digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies, many service providers are choosing to provide their high-speed service offerings through the existing copper loop, which extends from the central office (CO) into the customer premises. Although attractive in nature, the use of these technologies is pushing the capabilities of existing loops to their limits. This situation, coupled with the number of different players with access, is generating a greater level of activity centered on the use, maintenance, and management of the copper loop and the services running over it.

Although incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) are unbundling the loop for use by competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), they cannot turn over the management of this most critical part of their network. On the contrary, they must enhance their management tools and enable them to better monitor the activity on the loop. Furthermore, particularly in a line-sharing environment, they must ensure that the traffic and test signals or tones originating from the CLEC do not affect the quality of service offered to their customers. Similarly, CLECs have a particular challenge in that they must be equipped to monitor the state of the local loop and have the means to offer a competitive service—despite not actually having direct control of the loop. For example, in the eventuality of new services, CLECs must be able to pretest or qualify the loop to validate that it is in good order. Also, when service problems arise, CLECs must be able to isolate the source of the problem rapidly, even if it happens to be on the ILEC–owned loop.