For the above reasons, WorldCom’s senior management directed subordinates to take steps to hide the deterioration in WorldCom’s profitability from analysts and other external parties. A primary means of carrying out the fraud was to transfer ordinary operating expenses, line costs, to a capital asset account, fixed assets. This accounting treatment resulted in the understatement of operating expenses and an increase in income. Line costs represent fees paid by telecommunications companies to other such companies for the right to access their networks. For example, WorldCom is a primary supplier of long-distance services and it owns an extensive nationwide distribution network, but it does not own the lines connecting from the main telephone switches into individual homes, referred to as “the last copper mile.” This last copper mile, or connections into individual homes, is owned by the regional Bell operating companies (e.g.,BellSouth, Verizon, etc.). Under GAAP, line costs must be expensed as incurred and cannot be capitalized.