Section 770.10  Definitions

            "Access code" means a sequence of numbers that, when dialed, connects the caller to the provider of operator services associated with that sequence. These access codes include, but are not limited to, 950, 1-800 and 10XXX.

            "Act" means the Public Utilities Act [220 ILCS 5].

            "Aggregator" means any person or entity, that is not an operator service provider and that in the ordinary course of its operations makes telephones available to the public or to transient users of its premises, including, but not limited to, a hotel, motel, hospital, or university, for telephone calls between points within this State that are specified by the user using an operator service provider (Section 13-901 of the Act).

            "Call splashing" means the transfer of a telephone call from one provider of operator services to another such provider in such a manner that the subsequent provider is unable or unwilling to determine the location of origination of the call, and because of such inability or unwillingness is prevented from billing the call on the basis of such location.

            "Commission" means the Illinois Commerce Commission.

            "Consumer" means a person initiating any intrastate telephone call using operator services.

            "Contract" means any contract that involves the provision of operator services.

            "Equal access" has the meaning given that term in Appendix B of the Modification of Final Judgement entered by the United States District Court on August 24, 1982 in United States v. Western Electric, Civil Action No. 82-0192 (D.D.C. 1982), as amended by the Court in its orders issued prior to September 1, 1994.

            "Equal access code" means an access code that allows the consumer to obtain an equal access connection to the carrier associated with that code.

            "FCC" means the Federal Communications Commission.

            "GDP Implicit Price Deflator" means the index that the Department of Commerce produces to measure the price level for a varied market basket of goods and services in the economy.  The recorded measure of the GDP Implicit Price Deflator as reported by the WEFA Group is to be used for purposes of this Part.

            "Operator service provider" means every telecommunications carrier that provides operator services or any other person or entity that the Commission determines is providing operator services (Section 13-901 of the Act).

            "Operator services" means any telecommunications service that includes, as a component, any automatic or live assistance to a consumer to arrange for billing or completion, or both, of a telephone call between points within this State that are specified by the user through a method other than:

            Automatic completion with billing to the telephone from which the call originated;

            Completion through an access code or a proprietary account number used by the consumer, with billing to an account previously established with the carrier by the consumer; or

            Completion in association with directory assistance services (Section 13-901 of the Act).

(Source:  Amended at 18 Ill. Reg. 13053, effective September 1, 1994)