Arizona Administrative Code › Title 14 - PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATIONS; CORPORATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS; SECURITIES REGULATION › Chapter 2 - CORPORATION COMMISSION - FIXED UTILITIES › Article 10 - ALTERNATIVE OPERATOR SERVICES › Section R14-2-1001 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 30, No. 28, July 12, 2024
In this Article, unless the context otherwise
				  requires:
1. "Access code" means a sequence of numbers that, when
				  dialed, connects a caller to the provider of operator services associated with
				  that sequence of numbers.
2. "Affiliate" means any other entity directly or indirectly
				  controlling or controlled by, or under direct or indirect common control with,
				  the entity making alternative operator services available to the public. For
				  purposes of this definition, the term "control" (including the correlative
				  meanings of the terms "controlled by" and "under common control with"), as used
				  with respect to any entity, means the power to direct the management policies
				  of such entity, whether through the ownership of voting securities, by
				  contract, or otherwise.
3. "Aggregator" or "Traffic Aggregator" means any person or
				  entity that, in the ordinary course of its operations and using a provider of
				  operator services, makes telephones available to the public or to transient
				  users of its premises, for intrastate telephone calls. Each entity that
				  exercises control over telephone equipment, whether through ownership of the
				  equipment, control of access to the equipment, or some other means, will be
				  responsible as an aggregator.
4. "Alternative Operator Services" or "AOS" means provision
				  by an entity, other than a local exchange carrier or a certificated
				  interexchange carrier with authorized operator service tariffs, of any
				  telecommunications service initiated from an aggregator location where
				  automated and/or live assistance is provided to a consumer in order to arrange
				  for billing or completion of an intrastate telephone call. Store and forward
				  payphones are not included within this definition.
5. "AOS Provider" means any public service corporation that
				  provides alternative operator services.
6. "Billing Agency" means any third party authorized by the
				  AOS provider to submit bills to end users and to handle billing
				  disputes.
7. "Blocking" means the process of screening the calls dialed
				  from the presubscribed telephone in order to prevent the completion of calls
				  that would allow the caller to reach a preferred interexchange carrier.
8. "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
				  originating location of the call and consequently bills the call without
				  properly reflecting the originating and terminating points of the telephone
				  call.
9. "Consumer," "Caller," or "End User" means a person
				  initiating any intrastate telephone call by means of alternative operator
				  services.
10. "Entity" means a corporation, partnership, limited
				  partnership, joint venture, trust, estate, or natural person.
11. "Interexchange carriers" or "IXCs" means any
				  long-distance telephone carriers authorized by the Commission to provide long
				  distance, interLATA telecommunications service, but not local exchange
				  services, within the state borders.
12. "IntraLATA long-distance service" means all long-distance
				  service originating and terminating in the same LATA, as defined by the
				  F.C.C.
13. "LATA" means one of the geographic local access and
				  transport areas established as a result of the AT&T divestiture.
14. "Local exchange carriers" or "LECs" means telephone
				  companies currently certified to provide local telephone service in designated
				  areas of the state.
15. "Operator Service Charges" or "charges" means all
				  tariffed charges, other than rate usage charges, and surcharges authorized by
				  the Commission and charged to the end user for live or automated
				  operator-assisted calls.
16. "Rate" means any usage charges, as approved by this
				  Commission.
17. "Surcharge" or "Location-specific Surcharge" means a
				  charge imposed by an aggregator upon an end user and paid in addition to the
				  usage rates and operator service charges of the alternative operator services
				  provider.
18. "Waiver" refers to the Commission's ability to dispense
				  with a requirement under these rules.
19. "Zero-minus call" means a call that is made by dialing a
				  single zero.
The Arizona
				  Corporation Commission has determined that the following Section is exempt from
				  the Attorney General certification provisions of the Arizona Administrative
				  Procedure Act (A.R.S. § 41-1041 ) by a court order (State ex. rel. Corbin
				  v. Arizona Corporation Commission, 174 Ariz. 216 848 P.2d 301 (App.
				  1992)).