  We establish a framework to study the classical-communication properties of
primitive local operations assisted by classical communication which realize
various redistributions of entanglement, like, e.g., entanglement swapping. On
the one hand, we analyze what local operations and how much classical
communication are needed to perform them. On the other hand, we investigate
whether and to what extent such primitives can help to establish classical
communication when they are used in the form of black boxes available to
spatially-separated users. In particular, we find that entanglement swapping
costs more communication than it can signal; in this sense, entanglement
swapping is a weaker primitive than quantum teleportation.
