As the operations manager at a CLEC, or perhaps an enterprise telecom buyer, you’re constantly on the lookout for the best telecommunications rates for your company. Let’s say you want to research carrier access rates by universal service ordering codes (USOCs) for the major carriers. It probably goes without saying that such a quest can be, at best, professionally frustrating. Certainly you have some tools at your disposal, but what your task ends up becoming is a carrier-by-carrier search of the majors.

For instance, you could use AT&T’s Wholesale Division USOC lookup tool, and get:
Last USOC Load:ERROR

Even if AT&T’s rates actually loaded up for you, there’s a fairly good chance that the data and information would not be current, and you’d end up having to deal with an AT&T sales rep anyway.

Isn’t there an easier way to do business with carriers that want to do business with you?

It’s not news to anyone in the industry that USOCs are a legacy leftover from the breakup of Ma Bell. Since the breakup, RBOCs are no longer the only players in the game, and every player has their own set of USOCs. There’s very little standardization. So, what’s a CLEC or enterprise buyer to do when they’re conducting research in order to optimize carrier access rates? 

You could wade through each of the individual majors by going to the FAQ at Network Financial Services, and clicking on the USOC links for each of the majors.  Doesn’t this seem like a really inefficient way to do the research, though? Or, if you simply want to access carriers that provide bulk rate, discount services in your area, you could start a Google search. At the end of the day, though, there are very few productive methods to get an apples-for-apples comparison of competing carrier services, regardless of whatever USOC is assigned by a carrier to a specific service.

It’s hard to wade through the data jumble of carrier access rates that are available, and make sense of it.  However, tools are available that will allow you to conduct the necessary research without taking hours of time or dealing with an endless parade of sales reps. These tools, whether desktop or on the cloud, can make your life easier, and even provide automated updates when your existing rate plans change (or a competitor offers a better deal).  As the late famous pitchman, Billy Mays, might say, "How much would that peace of mind be worth to you?"

The value that USOC research tools bring to the table is that they cover every carrier available to the CLEC or enterprise buyer. The initial investment in these tools, compared to the potential for significant savings on bundled services, makes the tools well worth investigating. AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest are not the only players in the game. And regardless of your service needs, these integrated tools offer you the most efficient way to research and access information on carrier access rates.

TelView is a comprehensive online telecom rate research tool that helps CLECs quickly find carrier access rates and USOCs for bill auditing.