But is a company that only provides long distance service a provider of electronic communication service? (legalblogwatch.typepad.com)
A local telephone company is clearly a provider of electronic communication service: it literally provides users the ability to send or receive telephone calls. (legalblogwatch.typepad.com)
Indeed, it is not because the data retained can be accessed and used by police and judicial authorities for criminal investigations that the data retention rules, which address private actors providing electronic communications services (service providers), would themselves be excluded from the scope of the Directive (§ § 87 - 97). (europeanlawblog.eu)