local access and transport area (LATA)
Under the terms of the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ), a geographical area within which a divested Bell Operating Company (BOC) is permitted to offer exchange telecommunications and exchange access services.
Note: Under the terms of the MFJ, the BOCs are generally prohibited from providing services that originate in one LATA and terminate in another.
Also referred to as service areas by some BOCs, a LATA serves two basic purposes: to provide a method for delineating the area within which the BOCs may offer long distance services and, to provide a basis for determining how the assets of the former Bell System were to be divided between the BOCs and AT&T at divestiture.