The Building Owners and Managers Association recently offered comments to the State Corporation Commission of Virginia about the issue of failing CLECs. SCC started its process in July with some proposed rules about how consumers should be informed if they are going to lose their service, and what measures should be put in place to provide services for those who lose them.

At first glance, the issue's relevance to the real estate industry seems tenuous at best, but BOMA says not so.

In a statement, BOMA president Sherwood Johnston III said, "We filed in Virginia to outline the significant impact CLECs' business failures are having on tenants and the private right-of-way in buildings where CLECs have located their infrastructure for services." In essence, most CLECs are or were providing local phone services, but almost all CLECs were targeting the lucrative small-business sector. Even today, five years after the fact, most individual consumers are dealing with the Baby Bells, which aren't such babies anymore after mergers changed their numbers from seven to four. Or individual consumers are dealing with the national long-distance services, such as AT&T and MCI Worldcom, which have gotten into the local phone business in certain major cities.