Oklahoma Administrative Code › Title 165 - Corporation Commission › Chapter 57 - Operator Service Providers Telecommunications Services › Subchapter 1 - General Provisions › Section 165:57-1-4 - Definitions

Current through Vol. 41, No. 20, July 1, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this Chapter,
				  shall have the following meaning unless the context clearly indicates
				  otherwise:
"Access code"
means the preliminary digits that
				  a user must dial to be connected to a particular outgoing trunk group or
				  line.
"Aggregator"
means any person or entity that, in
				  the ordinary course of its operations, makes telephones available to the public
				  or to transient users of its premises for intrastate telephone calls including
				  calls using an operator services provider; i.e., customers of an OSP.
				  Aggregators include, but are not limited to, hotels, motels, hospitals,
				  universities, airports, gas stations, and to the extent permitted by law,
				  payphone service providers. Aggregator does not include inmate-only coinless
				  phones provided by correctional institutions but shall include telephones
				  provided for use by the public in visitation areas of correctional
				  institutions.
"Answer supervision"
means a network control
				  signal sent from the terminating location to the originating location to inform
				  the originating location that a call has been answered and a network control
				  signal from the originating end to the terminating end to inform the
				  terminating end that a calling party has hung up. In the public switched
				  network, the answer supervision signal is used to start and stop billing for a
				  call.
"Billing agent"
means an entity which provides
				  bills to an end-user for services received from an OSP.
"Blocking"
means any and/or all of the
				  following:
(1) The formatting of data into blocks for purposes of
				  transmission, storage, checking, or other functions.
(2) Denying access to, or use of, a facility, system, or
				  component.
(3) The failure of a telecommunications network to meet a
				  user service demand, because of the lack of an available communications
				  path.
"Brand"
means the audible and distinct
				  identification by the OSP to the consumer of the OSP presubscribed by the
				  aggregator.
"Call splashing"
means the transfer of a
				  telephone call from one OSP to another such provider in such a manner that the
				  subsequent provider is unable or unwilling to determine the location of the
				  origination of the call and, because of such inability or unwillingness, is
				  prevented from billing the call on the basis of the actual originating
				  location.
"Commission"
means the Oklahoma Corporation
				  Commission.
"Complaint"
means any oral or written report
				  given to an OSP by an aggregator or consumer of an OSP's service and/or the
				  Commission's Consumer Services Division relating to dissatisfaction with the
				  provision of or the rate(s) charged for the OSP's service(s). Each complaint
				  shall count as a separate report regardless of whether subsequent reports
				  relate to the same situation giving rise to the dissatisfaction with the
				  provision of or the rate(s) charged for the OSP's regulated services.
"Consumer"
means any person initiating any
				  intrastate telephone call using the assistance of a live or automated operator
				  or any person receiving an intrastate telephone call handled by an OSP in which
				  the called party will be paying for the service.
"Customer trouble report"
means any oral or
				  written report given to the OSP's repair service or contact person by an
				  aggregator or consumer of an OSP's service and/or the Commission's Consumer
				  Services Division relating to a defect or difficulty or dissatisfaction with
				  the provision of the OSP's services. Each trouble report shall count as a
				  separate report regardless of whether subsequent reports relate to the same
				  defect, difficulty, or dissatisfaction with the provision of the OSP's
				  regulated services.
"End-user"
means the consumer.
"Equal access"
means a condition where the local
				  exchange access service offered by a telephone company is made available in
				  equal kind, quality and price to all long distance companies. Equal access also
				  describes a condition where customers may choose for themselves the
				  interexchange carrier to which their long distance calls are to be routed,
				  using the same number of dialed digits regardless of which interexchange
				  carrier is chosen.
"Equal access code"
means an access code that
				  allows the public to obtain access to the carrier associated with that code;
				  i.e., 101XXXX.
"FCC"
means Federal Communications
				  Commission.
"ILEC"
means an Incumbent Local Exchange
				  Company, as defined in OAC 165:55.
"Interexchange telecommunications carrier"
				  ("IXC")
means any person, firm, partnership, corporation, or other
				  entity, except incumbent LECs, resellers or OSPs, engaged in furnishing
				  regulated interexchange telecommunications services under the jurisdiction of
				  the Commission.
"InterLATA call"
means any call which is
				  originated in one LATA and terminated in another LATA.
"Interstate call"
means any call which is
				  originated in one state and terminated within the boundaries of another
				  state.
"Intrastate call"
means any call which is
				  originated and terminated within the boundaries of the State of Oklahoma,
				  regardless of whether such call is routed across state boundaries prior to
				  reaching its termination point.
"Joint aggregator"
describes a situation where
				  more than one party exercises control over telephone equipment, whether through
				  ownership of the equipment, control of access to the equipment or some other
				  means. Each party is jointly responsible as an aggregator under these
				  rules.
"LATA"
means Local Access and Transport Area as
				  defined in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47 Part 53.3.
"LEC"
means local exchange company, which is a
				  telephone company authorized by the Commission to provide telephone service in
				  a telephone exchange or exchanges.
"Operator service provider" ("OSP")
means any
				  common carrier that provides intrastate operator services or any other person
				  or entity determined by the Commission to be providing operator
				  services.
"Operator services"
means the initiation of any
				  in-trastate telecommunications service, including, but not limited to, services
				  from an aggregator location, or to presubscribed customers, which services
				  include, as a component, any automated or live assistance to a consumer to
				  arrange for billing or completion, or both, of an intrastate telephone
				  call.
"Payphone service provider"
means any person,
				  firm, partnerships, corporation, cooperative corporation or other lawful entity
				  providing payphone service as defined in OAC 165:58.
"Presubscribed customer"
means a customer that
				  has indicated their choice of a primary interexchange carrier for use at their
				  location. The customer's toll calls will then be routed to their presubscribed
				  interexchange carrier, unless the customer designates otherwise, on a per-call
				  basis, by use of a carrier access code.
"Reseller"
means any person, partnership,
				  cooperative corporation, or lawful entity that offers telecommunications
				  services to the public through the use of the transmission facilities of an
				  underlying carrier or a combination of its own facilities and the transmission
				  facilities of an underlying carrier for resale to the public for profit, as
				  defined in OAC 165:56.
"Rules of Practice"
means OAC 165:5.
"Service"
means telecommunications service in
				  its broadest and most inclusive sense, and includes any and all acts done,
				  rendered, or performed and any and all things furnished or supplied by the OSP
				  in the provision of regulated offerings to consumers.
"Streamlined tariff revision(s)"
means
				  revision(s) proposed by an OSP which will become effective without notice and
				  hearing or order of the Commission, in the time frame established in OAC
				  165:57-7-5,
				  unless suspended.
"Telecommunications service provider"
means all
				  authorized providers of local exchange service, whether an incumbent LEC or a
				  competitive LEC as defined in OAC 165:55.
"Terms of Service"
means rates, charges and
				  terms and conditions for regulated services that a reseller elects to post, in
				  a searchable format, on a publicly available website.
"Zero minus ("0-") call"
means an
				  operator-assisted call where the calling party dials zero ("0") for an operator
				  and waits until an operator comes on the line. The caller then states the
				  telephone number they want to reach and the nature (person-to-person, collect,
				  etc.) of the call.
"Zero plus ("0+") call"
means an
				  operator-assisted call where the calling party dials zero ("0") followed by the
				  number being called, including the area code. This dialing pattern is used
				  mostly for collect, credit card, person-to-person and third-party-billed calls.
				  The caller indicates the type of call after dialing is completed and an
				  operator may come on line.
Added at 12 Ok Reg 2157,
				  eff 7-1-95; Amended at 14 Ok Reg 2872, eff 7-15-97; Amended at 15 Ok Reg 3092,
				  eff 7-15-98; Amended at 16 Ok Reg 2312, eff
				  7-1-99