I've known people who've worked within telecom sales. Employees of any area's dominant phone company are specifically trained to call their control of the lines

I've known people who've worked within telecom sales. Employees of any area's dominant phone company are specifically trained to call their control of the lines out as a benefit of not using one of the smaller competitors to whom they're legally obligated to sell space. It becomes part of their pitch. Something to the effect of "Use [AT&T/Sprint/whomever] because we control the lines and our jobs always get done -- other jobs, maybe not so much." is frequently heard.