Whippany, NJ - January 21, 2004 –The National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) 2003 Access Market Survey (AMS), Fulfilling the Digital Dream: A Report on the Technology of Small and Rural Telephone Companies shows significant progress among its traffic sensitive pool members in the deployment of DSL services. At the time of the last AMS in 2001, 557 pool members provided DSL services. In the latest survey that number has jumped to 814, a 46% increase. To read complete survey please click on http://www.neca.org/

“The eighth and latest NECA Access Market Survey highlights a very significant accomplishment,” said President Bob Anderson. “At a time when competition has grown to unprecedented levels and consumers have more options than ever before our companies keep expanding to meet competition and customer demand.”

The new survey also indicated that the performance of our member companies far exceeded their own expectations. In 2001, only 66 companies indicated that they planned to deploy DSL services in the succeeding two years. However, our survey results show that the actual number of companies that deployed DSL was 257, well above the projections. The AMS also shows that the members surveyed have more access lines, while line growth has been declining nationally. These companies also had more central office switches than they did in 2001.

The AMS was developed based upon information supplied to us by the NECA member companies who responded to our survey. The information generated, which we use to gather information about the technological capabilities of the companies in our traffic sensitive pool, allows us to respond to telephone company requests for new service tariffs or enhancements to existing interstate tariff offerings. Along with other sources, such as NECA’s interstate access and wire center tariffs, this vital data is entered in a unique industry database that dates back to the first AMS in 1989.