ICG has boosted its sales force in the Cleveland-Akron market by hiring 15 of its 60 area employees in the past six months.

in this market, ICG last January launched an aggressive print, radio and direct mail ad campaign that touts its service as a less-expensive alternative to the incumbent, Chicago-based Ameritech. ICG started providing service through its own fiber optic cable network in April. Only two residential customers have signed on so far with ICG in Ohio, said company spokesman Marc Ver Straate. Residential customers in Cleveland, Akron, Columbus and Dayton can sign up with ICG for local phone service today, even though the company's focus is on business customers.

'The fact that ICG has come in - hopefully, that's a breakthrough, and hopefully, others will follow and follow quickly.' Still, the recent filing by ICG might be a sign of progress, Mr. He said more than a year after the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 opened the doors to competition, Ohio residents still do not have a choice for local phone service. Tongren has criticized the PUCO for not giving phone companies incentives to serve his constituents first. In representing the state's residential utility customers, Mr. The lack of companies seeking to provide residential service is not surprising, because business customers generate far more phone lines and more revenue than residential consumers, said Ohio Consumers' Counsel Robert S. Separate filings are required for companies to begin residential service and business service. It's the first residential tariff filing among all 41 companies that have applied to enter the state's local telephone market, said PUCO spokesman Dick Kimmins. ICG filed a tariff document June 6 with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio detailing the company's proposed rates for residential service. It won't begin marketing local service to residential customers in Cleveland, Akron, Columbus and Dayton for another 12 to 18 months, said Lee Wollgast, ICG's senior vice president of the Ohio Valley. However, they won't be fighting over home phone lines just quite yet.įor at least the next year, Denver-based ICG plans to focus its attention on the more lucrative market of providing local phone service to businesses.

in Cleveland's residential telephone market. has jumped through the final regulatory hoop to qualify as the first competitor to Ameritech Corp.

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