New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 14 - PUBLIC UTILITIES › Chapter 10 - TELECOMMUNICATIONS › Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 14:10-1.2 - 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. Additional definitions that apply to this chapter can be found at
				  N.J.A.C.
				  14:3-1.1.
"Access code" means a sequence of numbers that, when dialed,
				  permits a telephone caller to obtain a connection to the carrier associated
				  with that code. All access codes take the form of 10XXX or 101XXXX, with X
				  meaning any numerical value from 0 to 9.
"Adult-oriented information-access telephone service" means a
				  telephone service to which a customer can subscribe, through which, for a
				  charge, sexually explicit messages are furnished to a caller.
"Agent" means any person, as defined at
				  N.J.A.C.
				  14:3-1.1, including, but not limited to,
				  employees, servants or marketers, acting on behalf of another person, in order
				  to bring about, modify, affect performance of, or terminate obligations between
				  the other person and a third party.
"Aggregator" means a person, as defined at
				  N.J.A.C.
				  14:3-1.1, that, in the ordinary course of its
				  business, makes PPTS, as defined in this section, available to the public or to
				  transient users, and that provides operator-assisted services through either
				  automated store and forward technology or through an operator service provider.
				  This term includes but is not limited to hotels, motels, hospitals, and
				  universities.
"Alternate operator service provider" or "AOS" means a
				  carrier that leases lines from a LEC and/or an IXC, and uses the leased lines
				  and its own operators to provide operator-assisted services for intrastate
				  calls. An AOS is a type of OSP, as defined in this section.
"Automated intervention" means automated store and forward
				  technology, through which the placement or charging of a telephone call is
				  provided without human involvement in each call or charge.
"Branding" means verbal identification of the OSP prior to
				  connection of a call and starting the timing of the call for charging
				  purposes.
"Carrier" or "telecommunications carrier" means a telephone
				  utility, including an ILEC, an IXC, or a CLEC, and/or a reseller, as those
				  terms are defined in this section.
"Clear" means, in regards to a problem or request for
				  assistance with telecommunications service, to resolve the problem or satisfy
				  the request.
"Competitive local exchange carrier" (CLEC) means a local
				  exchange telecommunications carrier, other than an incumbent local exchange
				  carrier, to which the Board has granted authority to provide telecommunications
				  services.
"Competitive telecommunications services" means any
				  telecommunications service that the Board has determined to be competitive
				  pursuant to
				  48:2-21.1
				  9.
"Correctional facility" means an institution, including a
				  prison, jail or detention center, operated by a governmental entity, which is
				  dedicated to the treatment, rehabilitation or confinement of criminal
				  offenders.
"Customer provided pay telephone service" or "CPPTS" means
				  telephone service furnished to the public, for a per-use fee, by an individual,
				  business or partnership or corporation that is a reseller.
"Customer provided pay telephone service provider" or "CPPTS
				  provider" means the customer of record that purchases a CPPTS line and is
				  responsible for the pay telephone instrument.
"Exchange access" means the provision of exchange services
				  for the purpose of originating or terminating interexchange telecommunications.
				  Such services are provided by facilities in an exchange area for the
				  transmission, switching or routing of interexchange telecommunications that
				  originate or terminate within the exchange area.
"FCC" means the Federal Communications Commission, which is a
				  United States government agency.
"Facilities-based carrier" means a carrier or TSP that owns
				  some portions of the telephone system, and that uses its own facilities for
				  some portion of its provision of telecommunications service. Examples of
				  facilities are local loop, transport and switches.
"Incumbent local exchange carrier" (ILEC) means a
				  facilities-based telecommunications carrier with a Board-approved tariff in
				  effect prior to February 8, 1996, which authorizes the carrier to provide
				  telecommunications services in New Jersey. An ILEC may also operate as an
				  OSP.
"Information provider" means an entity that uses LEC or IXC
				  telecommunications services to provide information to callers for a fee, for
				  example, adult-oriented information-access telephone services to provide
				  sexually explicit messages.
"Interexchange carrier" or "IXC" means a carrier, other than
				  a local exchange carrier, that is authorized by the Board to provide
				  long-distance telecommunications services.
"InterLATA toll call" means a toll call that originates in
				  one LATA and terminates in another.
"IntraLATA toll call" means a toll call that originates and
				  terminates in a single LATA.
"Intrastate telecommunications service" means a
				  telecommunications service which remains within the boundaries of New Jersey,
				  regardless of the specific routing of the call.
"Local Access Transport Area" or "LATA" means a geographic
				  area, outside of which a Bell Operating Company does not carry telephone calls.
				  (See United States v. Western Electric, 569 F. Supp. 990 (D.D.C. 1983).)
"Local call" means a call within a local calling area, as
				  defined in this section.
"Local calling area" is a group of exchange areas in which an
				  end-user can call without an extra fee, over and above the monthly local
				  calling fee. The local calling area is delineated in an ILEC's tariff. A local
				  calling area is a subset of a LATA.
"Local exchange carrier" or "LEC" means an ILEC or a CLEC, as
				  defined in this section.
"Operator-assisted services" means services that assist
				  callers in placing or charging a telephone call, either through live
				  intervention or automated intervention.
"Operator service provider" or "OSP" means a facilities-based
				  telecommunications carrier that provides operator-assisted services.
"Presubscribed OSP" means an OSP that a customer has chosen
				  to provide operator assisted services for intrastate calls from a telephone
				  that the customer owns, so that an end-user can place a call from the telephone
				  using the OSP, without having to dial an access code.
"Primary interexchange carrier" or "PIC" means an
				  interexchange carrier, as defined in this section, that a customer has chosen
				  to provide interexchange service, so that the customer can place a toll call
				  from its landline using the PIC without having to dial an access code.
"Public pay telephone service" or "PPTS" means telephone
				  service provided in an area used by the transient public, for public use for a
				  per-use fee. This term includes customer provided pay telephone service, as
				  defined in this section.
"Public pay telephone service provider" or "PPTS provider"
				  means a person, as defined at
				  14:3-1.1,
				  that provides PPTS.
"Reseller" means a non facilities-based carrier that leases
				  lines or other physical infrastructure from a facilities-based carrier for use
				  in providing telecommunications services to customers.
"Retail customer" is an end user that purchases
				  telecommunications services for their own use and not for resale.
"Slamming" means an unauthorized change of a customer's
				  primary interexchange carrier or the failure to execute an authorized change in
				  a customer's primary interexchange carrier.
"Splashing" means the practice of a carrier calculating the
				  charge for a long distance call initiated at a public pay telephone based on
				  the location from which the long distance carrier picks up the call, rather
				  than on the call's point of origin. Splashing typically occurs when a PPTS call
				  is routed to a call center, and the carrier picks up the call from the call
				  center. Then the carrier charges the caller as if the call originated at the
				  call center, rather than at the public pay telephone. If the call center is
				  located at a substantial distance from the PPTS where the call originated, the
				  carrier's charges could be substantially increased by the use of the call
				  center rather than the initiation point of the call.
"Subscriber" means a telecommunications service customer of a
				  LEC or IXC.
"Telecommunications" means the transmission, between or among
				  points specified by the user, or information of the user's choosing, without
				  change in the form or content of the information as sent and received.
"Telecommunications service" means the offering of
				  telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of
				  users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the
				  facilities used.
"Telecommunications service provider" or "TSP" has the same
				  meaning as "carrier," as defined in this section.
"Telephone utility" means a public utility, as defined at
				  N.J.A.C.
				  14:3-1.1, as well as any entity, as defined
				  at
				  N.J.A.C.
				  14:3-1.1, that provides telecommunications
				  services to the public.
"Toll call" means a call that terminates outside the local
				  calling area in which the call originated. The local calling area is defined in
				  the ILEC's tariffs filed with and approved by the Board.
"Toll service" means the provision of toll calls.
"Type of service" means the category of telephone services
				  provided to customers by telecommunications carriers. Examples of such types of
				  service include, but are not limited to, toll, wide area telephone service,
				  toll free, operator services, channel services, virtual private networks and
				  optional services.
"Wholesale customer" means an entity that purchases
				  telecommunications services for resale to others.