New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 14 - PUBLIC UTILITIES › Chapter 18 - REGULATIONS OF CABLE TELEVISION › Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 14:18-1.2 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter,
				  shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates
				  otherwise:
"Ascertainment" means the formal pre-proposal fact finding
				  process performed by the municipality in lieu of one performed by the
				  Board.
"Board" means the Board of Public Utilities, as defined by
				  48:1-1 et seq.
"Cable home wiring" means the internal wiring contained
				  within the premises of a customer which begins at the demarcation point. Cable
				  home wiring includes passive splitters on the customer's side of the
				  demarcation point, but does not include any active elements such as amplifiers,
				  converters or decoder boxes or remote control units.
"Cable television company or cable television operator" means
				  any person or group of persons who provides cable television service over a
				  cable television system and directly or through one or more affiliates owns a
				  significant interest in such cable television system, or who otherwise controls
				  or is responsible for, through any arrangement, the management and operation of
				  such a cable system.
"Cable television operator's proposal" means the cable
				  television operator's petition to the Board for a Certificate of Approval
				  following completion of municipal consent proceeding.
"Cable television reception service" means the simultaneous
				  delivery through a cable television system of the signals of television
				  broadcast stations to members of the public subscribing to such service, which
				  service may include additional nonbroadcast signals delivered as part of the
				  service with no additional charge.
"Cable television service" means (1) the one-way transmission
				  to subscribers of video programming or other programming service; and (2)
				  subscriber interaction, if any, which is required for the selection or use of
				  such video programming or other programming service, regardless of the
				  technology utilized by a cable television company to enable such selection or
				  use.
"Cable television system" means a facility, consisting of a
				  set of closed transmission paths and associated signal generation, reception,
				  and control equipment, that is designed to provide cable television service,
				  which includes video programming, without regard to the technology used to
				  deliver such video programming, including Internet protocol technology or any
				  successor technology, and which is provided to multiple customers within a
				  community, but such term does not include:
1. A facility that serves only to retransmit the television
				  signals of one or more television broadcast stations;
2. A facility that serves customers without using any public
				  right-of-way;
3. A facility of a common carrier, which is subject, in whole
				  or in part, to regulation by the Board pursuant to Title 48 of the Revised
				  Statutes, except that such facility shall be considered a cable television
				  system to the extent such facility is used in the transmission of video
				  programming directly to customers, unless the extent of such use is solely to
				  provide interactive on-demand services;
4. An open video system that has been certified by the
				  Federal Communications Commission as being in compliance with the provisions of
				  Part 76, "Multichannel Video and Cable Television Service," of Title 47 of the
				  Code of Federal Regulations;
5. Any facilities of any electric public utility used solely
				  for operating its electric utility systems; or
6. A facility of an electric public utility, which is
				  subject, in whole or in part, to regulation by the Board pursuant to Title 48
				  of the Revised Statutes, except that such facility shall be considered a cable
				  television system solely to the extent that such facility is used in the
				  transmission of video programming directly to the customers.
The term "facility" as used in this section is limited to the
				  optical spectrum wavelengths, bandwidth, or other current or future
				  technological capacity used for the transmission of video programming directly
				  to customers.
"Certificate of approval" means a certificate issued, or
				  which may be issued, by the Board upon the recommendation of the Director
				  pursuant to
				  48:5A-1 et seq.
"Class I, Class II, Class III and Class IV cable television
				  channels" means signaling paths as defined in Subpart A, Section 76.5,
				  subsections (t), (u), (v) and (w) respectively, of the FCC rules and
				  regulations adopted on February 2, 1972, as amended.
"Complaint" means any written or verbal contact, including by
				  telephone, by an assistive technology device for the hearing impaired such as
				  TTY/DDD, a telecommunications relay service, in person, by facsimile, e-mail,
				  or any other reasonable means, with a cable television operator in connection
				  with any product or service it offers in which a person expresses discontent or
				  dissatisfaction with an act, omission, product, service, service content or
				  complement, term or condition of service.
"Component" means any individually offered service or piece
				  of equipment.
"Customer" means any individual, partnership, firm,
				  corporation, government subdivision or agency receiving service from a cable
				  television company.
"Demarcation point" means:
1. For new and existing single unit installations, a point at
				  or about 12 inches outside where the cable wire enters the customer's
				  premises;
2. For new and existing multiple dwelling unit installations
				  with non-loop-through wiring configurations, a point at or about 12 inches
				  outside of where the cable wire enters the customer's dwelling unit, or, where
				  the wire is physically inaccessible at such point, the closest practicable
				  point thereto that does not require access to the individual customer's
				  dwelling unit; and
3. For new and existing multiple dwelling unit installations
				  with loop-through wiring configurations, a point at or about 12 inches outside
				  of where the cable wire enters or exits the first and last individual dwelling
				  unit on the loop, or, where the wire is physically inaccessible at such
				  point(s), the closest practicable point thereto that does not require access to
				  the individual customer's dwelling unit.
"Director" means the Director of the Office of Cable
				  Television.
"Distribution plant" is the hardware, wires, electronics,
				  equipment and other instrumentalities which deliver cable television service to
				  the drop line feeding an individual customer's home.
"FCC" means the Federal Communications Commission.
"Franchising authority" means the State of New Jersey, Board
				  of Public Utilities, Office of Cable Television.
"Hearing impaired individual" means an individual who,
				  because of an injury to, disease of, or defect in the inner, middle or outer
				  ear, or any combination thereof, has suffered a loss of hearing acuity such
				  that the individual cannot receive linguistic information without
				  amplification, dubbing or captions.
"MDU" means multiple dwelling unit.
"MVPD" means multichannel video programming
				  distributor.
"Normal business hours" means 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
				  weekdays, except for days upon which the Board of Public Utilities is closed
				  for business, including, but not limited to, New Jersey State holidays. A list
				  of New Jersey State holidays can be obtained at
http://www.state.nj.us/nj/about/facts/holidays.html
.
"Normal operating conditions" means those service conditions
				  which are within control of the cable television operator. Those conditions not
				  within the control of the cable television operator include, but are not
				  limited to, natural disasters, civil disturbances, power outages, telephone
				  network outages and severe or unusual weather conditions. Those conditions
				  which are ordinarily within control of the cable television operator, include,
				  but are not limited to, special promotions, pay-per-view events, rate
				  increases, channel and/or service alterations, regular peak or seasonal demand
				  periods, and maintenance or upgrade of the cable television system.
"Office" means the Office of Cable Television established by
				  48:5A-1 et seq.
"Outage" means the total loss of audio or visual portion of
				  any level of cable television service for which the cable television company
				  imposes a separate charge and which affects the cable television company's
				  distribution plant.
"Person" means any individual or group of individuals or any
				  agency or instrumentality of the State of New Jersey or of any of its political
				  subdivisions; but this definition shall not include a telephone, telegraph or
				  electric utility company regulated by the Board where it merely leases or rents
				  or otherwise provides to a cable television company wires, conduits, cables or
				  pole space used in the redistribution of broadcast signals to or toward
				  customers of such cable television company.
"Physically inaccessible" means a location where access
				  thereto would require significant modification of, or significant damage to,
				  preexisting structural elements, that would add significantly to the physical
				  difficulty and/or cost of accessing the customer's home wiring.
"Preliminary assessment of denial" means a decision by the
				  Office of Cable Television to schedule a hearing on a Certificate of Approval
				  application pursuant to
				  48:5A-16(b)  and
				  47
				  U.S.C. §
										546(c)(1).
"Preproposal phase" means any proceedings conducted under
				  these rules held prior to a cable television operator's filing for a renewal of
				  a Certificate of Approval with the Board of Public Utilities.
"Promotional service" means the offering of an existing
				  product, service, group of services or capability at a reduced introductory
				  charge for a limited, specified period of time, during which the cable
				  television company attempts to encourage new or additional customers to the
				  product service.
"Proposal phase" means any proceedings subsequent to the time
				  under these rules when a petition for renewal of a Certificate of Approval is
				  filed with the Board of Public Utilities.
"Renewal" means formal extension or continuation by the Board
				  of any cable television operator's franchise beyond the duration specified by
				  the existing Certificate of Approval.
"Request for Proposal" means a duly adopted municipal consent
				  ordinance incorporating all terms and conditions for renewal, including but not
				  limited to, any generally imposed obligations under state statute and
				  regulations.
"Trial service" means the initial offering of a new
				  capability or technology over a cable television system to some or all existing
				  customers in the cable television company's service area for a limited,
				  specified period of time, not to exceed six months, during which the cable
				  television company assesses the performance or marketability of the new
				  capability or technology, and after which the service is either introduced as a
				  standard offering or discontinued.