Illinois Administrative Code › Title 83 - PUBLIC UTILITIES › Part 730 - STANDARDS OF SERVICE FOR LOCAL EXCHANGE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIERS › Subpart A - GENERAL › Section 730.105 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
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.