In 1983, the analog cell phone standard called AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) was approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and first used in Chicago. AMPS uses a range of frequencies between 824 megahertz (MHz) and 894 MHz for analog cell phones. In order to encourage competition and keep prices low, the U. S. government required the presence of two carriers in every market, known as A and B carriers. One of the carriers was normally the local-exchange carrier (LEC), a fancy way of saying the local phone company.