Section 730.105  Definitions

 

As used in this Part, the following terms shall have these definitions:

 

"Access line" means the connecting facility between a customer's premises network interface device and the local exchange carrier's facility that provides access to the switching network for local exchange and interexchange telecommunications service.  This includes the network interface or equivalent, the outside plant facilities, the office frame and frame wiring and the office line termination.

 

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

 

"Analog" means a continuous electrical signal that carries information by means of variations in its amplitude or frequency.  The electrical signal being transmitted varies in direct relation to the signal generated by the source.

 

"Answer time" means a measurement in seconds from the point the carrier's telephone system receives the call until the call is answered by the carrier's representative or voice response unit and ready to accept information.  In the case when the carrier uses a menu-driven system, the measurement begins once the menu-based system has transferred the customer into the carrier's telephone system until the call is answered by the carrier's representative.

 

"Application" means a verbal or written request for a telecommunications service.

 

"Appointment" means an arrangement made by a telecommunications carrier to meet a customer within an agreed 4 hour window to address an installation or repair situation, or, until June 30, 2004, between 8 A.M. and 4 P.M. on a particular day if the carrier uses the resold services, network or network elements of another carrier to provide service to the customer, at the customer's premises, to perform work on the network.

 

"Assistance calls" means calls in which the operator provides assistance or instructions to the customer.  Examples:  rate quotes, credit requests, trouble reports, dial assistance and dialing instructions.

 

"Basic local exchange service" means residential and business lines used for local exchange telecommunications service as defined in Section 13-204 of the Public Utilities Act, excluding: services that employ advanced telecommunications capability as defined in section 706(c)(1) of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-104); vertical services; company official lines; and records work only. [220 ILCS 5/13-712(b)(2)].

 

"Basic local exchange service installation" means the installation of basic local exchange service whereby the physical connecting and diagnostic testing of a local loop results in the provisioning of dial tone to the requesting customer's network interface device.  It includes move orders and orders for additional lines.

 

"Business office" means those offices of the company where calls are answered and made.  A business office typically employs company representatives to assist customers for order entry and lookup on customers' orders and account records through the use of a computerized system.

 

"Busy hour" means the two consecutive half-hours each day during which the greatest volume of traffic is handled.

 

"Busy tone" means an audible signal indicating a call cannot be completed because the called access line is busy.  The tone is applied 60 times per minute.

 

"Call data" means the recorded information necessary to measure and bill each call.

 

"Calls" means customers' messages attempted.

 

"Central office" means the site where switching equipment is located.  A local central office, also called an end office, is the switching office where individual subscriber's access lines appear.  It houses the equipment that receives calls transmitted on the local loop and routes the call over the switched network either directly to the person called, if the call is placed to a location served by the same local central office, or to another central office, if the call is placed to a customer served by a different central office.  Each central office serves local loops in an exclusive geographic area.

 

"Certificate of service authority" means the authorization by the Commission granting a local exchange carrier the right to provide telecommunications services within a specified geographical area.

 

"Channel" means a single path between two or more points provided for transport of user information and/or signaling for a communications service.

 

"Commission" means the Illinois Commerce Commission.

 

"Connecting company" means a corporation, association, partnership or individual (other than a company affiliated interest) that owns or operates central offices or similar switching facilities and interchanges traffic directly or indirectly with the local exchange carriers.

 

"Customer" means any person, building owner, firm, partnership, corporation, municipality, cooperative, organization, governmental agency, etc., provided with local exchange carrier telecommunications services as defined in Section 13-204 of the Act. Customer may also be referred to as "end user".

 

"Customer premises equipment" or "CPE" means equipment employed on the premises of a person (other than a carrier) to originate, route or terminate telecommunications.  Customer premises equipment includes customer premises wire.

 

"Customer premises wire" means any wire, including interface equipment, on the customer side of the network interface or equivalent.

 

"Customer trouble report" means any verbal or written report relating to difficulty or dissatisfaction with the operation of regulated telecommunications services.  One report shall be counted for a verbal or written report received.  When several items are reported by one customer at the same time, and the group of troubles so reported is clearly related to a common cause, they are counted as one report.

 

"dBrnc" means a measure of the interfering effect of noise.

 

"Decibel" or "dB" means a standard unit used for expressing a transmission signal gain or loss.

 

"Dial tone" means an audible tone sent from an automatic switching system to a customer to indicate the equipment is ready to receive dial signals.

 

"Dial tone first" means coin telephone service that allows a customer to obtain a dial tone before money is deposited into the coin telephone.

 

"Digital" means a signal that carries information by discrete changes in its parameters.  For digital transmission of analog information, the incoming voice, data or video signals are sampled periodically and digitally coded for transport through the network.

 

"Direct distance dialing" or "DDD" means the automatic establishment of toll calls in response to signals from the dialing device of the originating customer.

 

"Distributing system" means that part of the outside cable plant connecting the central office to the customer network interface at the customer's premises.

 

"Emergency situation" means a single event that causes an interruption of service or installations affecting end users of a local exchange carrier. The emergency situation shall begin with the first end user whose service is interrupted by the single event, and shall end with the restoration or installation of the service of all affected end users.

 

The term single event shall include:

 

a declaration made by the applicable State or federal governmental agency that the area served by the local exchange carrier is either a State or federal disaster area; or

 

an act of third parties, including acts of terrorism, vandalism, riot, civil unrest or war, or acts of parties that are not agents, employees or contractors of the local exchange carrier; or

 

a severe storm, tornado, earthquake, flood or fire, including any severe storm, tornado, earthquake, flood or fire that prevents the local exchange carrier from restoring service due to impassable roads, downed power lines, or the closing off of affected areas by public safety officials.

 

The term emergency situation shall not include:

 

a single event caused by high temperature conditions alone; or

 

a single event caused, or exacerbated in scope and duration, by acts or omissions of the local exchange carrier, its agents, employees or contractors or by the condition of facilities, equipment or premises owned or operated by the local exchange carrier; or

 

any service interruption that occur during a single event listed in this definition, but are not caused by those single events; or

 

a single event that the local exchange carrier could have reasonably foreseen and taken precaution to prevent; provided, however, that in no event shall a local exchange carrier be required to undertake precautions that are technically infeasible or economically prohibitive.

 

This Part shall be construed as being content neutral as to whether a strike or other work stoppage is an emergency situation.  In the event of a strike or other work stoppage, the local exchange carrier's obligations to provide remedies for failure to comply with this Part shall, in the absence of a decision by a court of competent jurisdiction, be determined by the Commission on a case-by-case basis based upon the individual factual circumstances of each strike or other work stoppage.  In making such a determination, and notwithstanding the definition of emergency situation above, the Commission shall not presume that a strike or other work stoppage is an act of an employee or of the local exchange carrier.

 

"End user" means any person, building owner, firm, partnership, corporation, municipality, cooperative, organization, governmental agency, etc., provided with local exchange carrier telecommunications services for consumption, not for resale, as defined in Section 13-204 of the Act.  End user may also be referred to as "customer".

 

"Exchange area" means a unit established by a local exchange carrier and approved by the Commission for the administration of telecommunications service in a specified geographical area.  It may consist of one or more central offices together with associated plant used in furnishing telecommunications services in that area.  Exchange areas are identified on exchange boundary maps on file with the Commission.

 

"Foreign exchange service" means a classification of exchange services whereby customers may be provided a telecommunications service from a local exchange other than the one from which they would normally be served.

 

"Information call" means a call in which a customer will be connected to directory assistance by dialing the proper service code or number and will be given the directory number of the customer whom he or she desires to call, provided that the customer's number to be called is or will be published or listed in the information records.  An information call is also referred to as directory assistance.

 

"Inside wire" means the same as "customer premises wire" defined above.

 

"Installation trouble report" means any network trouble report filed within seven days after the completion of a basic local exchange service installation on the same line.

 

"Intercept service" means a service arrangement provided by the local exchange carrier whereby calls placed to a disconnected or discontinued telephone number are intercepted and the calling party given such information as the called telephone number has been disconnected, discontinued or changed to another number, or that calls are being received by another telecommunications line.

 

"InterMSA" means those calls originating in one Market Service Area (MSA) but terminating in another MSA.  InterMSA calls are also referred to as "InterLATA calls". See Section 13-208 of the Act.

 

"Interoffice trunk" means a communication path between two central offices.

 

"Line" means the conductor or conductors, supporting circuit equipment, and structures extending between customer network interfaces and central offices, or between central offices, whether they be in the same or different communities.

 

"Local exchange carrier" or "LEC" means a telecommunications carrier certificated by the Commission to provide intra-exchange and/or inter-exchange service within the same MSA.

 

"Local exchange service" means the same as "local exchange telecommunications service" as defined in Section 13-204 of the Act.

 

"Local exchange service area" means the area where telecommunications service is furnished to customers under a specific schedule of rates and without toll charges.  A local exchange service area may include one or more exchange areas or portions of exchange areas.

 

"Local message" means a completed call between customers served by the same central office or between customers served by two different central offices as defined by and in accordance with tariffs.

 

"Local loop" means a channel between a customer's network interface and its serving central office. 

 

"Local usage charge" means the charge that applies to a call defined as a "local message".

 

"Map" means a drawing showing a geographical area in which a local exchange carrier furnishes telecommunications services.

 

"Message" means a completed customer call.

 

"Network" means the aggregate of transmission systems and switching systems. It is an arrangement of channels, such as loops, trunks and associated switching facilities.

 

"Network interface" means the point of termination on the customer premises at which the local exchange carrier's responsibility for the provision and maintenance of network channel or line service ends.  The network interface is part of the network and the order of appearance of central office lines on it is determined solely by the local exchange carrier

 

"Network service" means a telecommunications service that links two or more discrete channels for the purpose of creating a point-to-point connection.

 

"Noise to Ground" or "Ng" means the noise measured between ground and the tip and ring conductors.  The customer does not hear the noise to ground, but the amount of noise to ground affects the amount of noise metallic that a customer hears.

 

"Noise Metallic" or "Nm" means the noise measured across the tip and ring of a circuit and is the noise that the customer hears.

 

"Out of Service > 30 Hours" means that 30 hours after reporting an out of service condition to the local exchange carrier the customer still:

 

has no dial tone; or

 

cannot be called; or

 

cannot call out.

 

This defined term excludes call blocking or any other intentional alteration to an end user's calling or call receiving ability.

 

"Outside plant" means the telecommunications equipment and facilities installed on, along, over, or under streets, alleys, highways or on private rights-of-way between the central office and customer locations or between central offices.

 

"Party line service" is a service offering where two or more unaffiliated customers share the same line and telephone number.

 

"Premises" means the space occupied in a single local exchange area by a customer in a building or in adjoining buildings not separated by a public thoroughfare or in a public office building where the customer's office space is all contiguous.

 

"Public telephone service" means one-party access line service equipped with a coin collecting and/or calling-card only telephone instrument installed for the use of the general public in locations where the general public has access to these telephones.

 

"Repair office" means an office to handle customers' reported telephone facility problems.  Customers may call to request trouble verification tests, initiate trouble reports and obtain information on the status of open trouble reports.

 

"Repeat trouble report" means any network trouble report filed within 30 days after the closing of a previous network trouble report filed by the same customer for the same working line.

 

"Reporting entity" means a unit established by the local exchange carrier for the purpose of administering the customer service operations established by this Part.

 

            "Staff" means the Staff of the Illinois Commerce Commission.

 

"Telecommunications service" means any regulated communication service provided by local exchange carriers.

 

"Toll call" means a completed message between customers in different exchanges for which message toll rates are applicable.

 

"Traffic" means call volume based on number and duration of messages.

 

"Transmission" means the process of sending information from one point to another.

 

"Trouble report" means any customer complaint to the local exchange carrier regarding the operation of the network affecting their basic local exchange service, including both service-affecting conditions or out of service conditions.

 

"Trunk" means a transmission path between switching units, switching centers and/or toll centers.

 

"Vertical services" means optional telecommunication services, including, without limitation, Caller ID or Call Waiting, that a customer may choose to have added to its basic access line.

 

"Working line" means an active access line or channel.

 

(Source:  Amended at 36 Ill. Reg. 14990, effective October 1, 2012)