South Dakota Administrative Rules › Title 20 - PUBLIC SAFETY › Article 20:10 - PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION › Chapter 20:10:28 - Telecommunications separations procedures › Section 20:10:28:01 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 51, page 10, July 15, 2024
Terms defined in SDCL
				  49-31-1 have the same meaning when
				  used in this chapter. In addition, terms used in this chapter mean:
(1) "Access line," a communications facility
				extending from a customer's premises to a serving central office comprising a
				subscriber line and, if necessary, a trunk facility;
(2) "Book cost," the cost of property as
				recorded on the books of a company;
(3) "Cable fill factor," the ratio of cable
				conductor or cable pair miles in use to total cable conductor or cable pair
				miles available in the plant; for example, the ratio of revenue-producing cable
				pair miles in use to total cable pair miles in plant;
(4) "Category," a grouping of items of
				property or expense to facilitate the apportionment of their costs among the
				operations and to which, ordinarily, a common measure of use is
				applicable;
(5) "Central office,"
				in a telecommunications system which provides service to the general public, a
				switching system with the necessary equipment and operations arrangements for
				terminating and interconnecting subscriber lines and trunks or trunks
				only;
(6) "Channel," an electrical
				path suitable for the transmission of communications between two or more
				points, ordinarily between two or more stations or between channel terminations
				in a telecommunications company's central offices;
(7) "Circuit," a fully operative
				communications path established in the normal circuit layout and currently used
				for message, wide area telephone service access, or private line
				services;
(8) "Circuit mileage or
				miles," the route miles of revenue-producing circuits in service, determined by
				measuring the length, in miles, of the actual path followed by the transmission
				medium;
(9) "Class A company," a
				telecommunications company with annual revenues from regulated
				telecommunications operations of $100,000,000 or more;
(10) "Class B company," a telecommunications
				company with annual revenues from regulated telecommunications operations of
				less than $100,000,000;
(11)
				"Common channel network signaling," channels between switching offices used to
				transmit signaling information independent of the subscribers' communication
				paths or transmission channels;
(12) "Complement of cable," a group of
				conductors of the same general type, such as quadded or paired, within a single
				cable sheath;
(13) "Complex," all
				groups of operator positions, wherever located, associated with either the same
				call distribution or stored program control unit, or both;
(14) "Concentration equipment," central
				office equipment which is connected to the serving central office line
				equipment and whose function is to concentrate traffic from subscriber lines
				onto a lesser number of circuits between the remotely located concentration
				equipment and the serving central office concentration equipment;
(15) "Connection-minute," the product of the
				number of messages and the average minutes of connection for each
				message;
(16)
				"Conversation-minute," the product of the number of messages and the average
				minutes of conversation for each message;
(17) "Conversation-minute-miles," the product
				of the number of messages, the average minutes of conversation for each
				message, and the average route miles of circuits involved;
(18) "Cost," the price of property owned by a
				telecommunications company whose property is to be apportioned among its
				operations;
(19) "Current billing,"
				the combined amount of charges billed, excluding arrears;
(20) "Customer-dialed charge traffic,"
				traffic which is both handled to completion through pulses generated by the
				customer and for which either a message unit charge, bulk charge, or message
				toll charge is made, except for that traffic recorded by means of message
				registers;
(21) "Customer premises
				equipment," items of telecommunications terminal equipment in account 2310,
				such as telephone instruments, data sets, dialers, and other supplemental
				equipment, private branch exchanges which are provided by common carriers and
				located on customer premises, and inventory included in these accounts to be
				used for such purposes, but not similar items of equipment located on
				telecommunications company premises and used by the company in the normal
				course of business, as well as over voltage protection equipment, customer
				premises wiring, coin-operated public or pay telephones, multiplexing equipment
				to deliver multiple channels to the customer, mobile radio equipment, and
				transmit earth stations;
(22)
				"Customer premises wire," the segment of wiring from the customer's side of the
				protector to the customer premises equipment;
(23) "Data processing equipment," office
				equipment which uses punched cards, punched tape, magnetic tape, or other
				comparable storage media as an operating vehicle for recording and processing
				information, including machines for transcribing raw data onto punched cards
				but not including key-operated and manually or electrically driven adding,
				calculating, bookkeeping, or billing machines; typewriters; or similar
				equipment;
(24) "Dial switching
				equipment," switching equipment actuated by electrical impulses generated by a
				dial or key pulsing arrangement;
(25) "Equal access costs," only the initial
				incremental presubscription costs and initial incremental expenditures for
				hardware and software related directly to the provision of equal access which
				would not be required to upgrade the switching capabilities of the office
				involved without the provision of equal access;
(26) "Equivalent gauge," a standard
				cross-section of cable conductors for use in equating the metallic content of
				cable conductors of all gauges to a common base;
(27) "Equivalent miles of 104 wire," the
				basic units employed in the allocation of pole line costs for determining the
				relative use made of poles by aerial cables and by aerial wire conductors of
				various sizes, reflecting the relative loads of cable and wire carried on
				poles;
(28) "Equivalent pair
				miles," the product of sheath miles and the number of equivalent gauge pairs of
				conductors in a cable;
(29)
				"Equivalent sheath miles," the product of the length of a section of cable in
				sheath miles, and the ratio of the metallic content applicable to a particular
				group of conductors in the cable (conductors assigned to a category) to the
				metallic content of all conductors in the cable;
(30) "Exchange transmission equipment," a
				combination of exchange cable and wire facilities, exchange central office
				circuit equipment, including associated land and buildings, and information
				origination/termination equipment which forms a complete channel;
(31) "Holding time," the time in which an
				item of telecommunications plant is in actual use either by a customer or an
				operator;
(32) "Host central
				office," an electronic analog or digital base switching unit containing the
				central call processing functions which service the host office and its remote
				locations;
(33) "Information
				origination/termination equipment," equipment used to input into or receive
				output from the telecommunications network;
(34) "Interexchange channel," a circuit which
				is included in the interexchange transmission equipment;
(35) "Interexchange transmission equipment,"
				the combination of interexchange cable and wire facilities, interexchange
				circuit equipment, and associated land and buildings;
(36) "Interlocal trunk," a circuit between
				two local central office units, either manual or dial, used for either exchange
				or toll traffic, or both;
(37)
				"Intertoll circuits," circuits between toll centers and circuits between a toll
				center and a tandem system in a different toll center area;
(38) "Local channel," the portion of a
				private line circuit which is included in the exchange transmission plant, but
				ordinarily not information origination/termination equipment;
(39) "Local office," a central office serving
				primarily as a place of termination for subscriber lines and for providing
				telecommunications service to the subscribers on those lines;
(40) "Long haul toll traffic," a general term
				applied to message toll traffic between distant points, ordinarily more than 20
				to 50 miles apart;
(41) "Loop," a
				pair of wires, or its equivalent, between a customer's station and the central
				office from which the station is served;
(42) "Message," a completed call; a
				communication in which a conversation or exchange of information took place
				between the calling and called parties;
(43) "Message service or message toll
				service," switched service furnished to the general public, as distinguished
				from private line service, including exchange switched services and all
				switched services provided by interexchange carriers and completed by a local
				telecommunications company's access services, except as otherwise provided in
				this chapter;
(44) "Message units,"
				unit of measurement used for charging for measured message telephone exchange
				traffic within a specified area;
(45) "Minutes-of-use," a unit of measurement
				expressed as either holding time or conversation time;
(46) "Minutes-of-use miles," the product of
				the number of minutes-of-use and the average route miles of circuits
				involved;
(47) "Operations," the
				term denoting the general classifications of intrastate services rendered to
				the public for which separate tariffs are filed, namely toll and
				other;
(48) "Operator system," a
				stored program electronic system associated with one or more toll switching
				systems which provides centralized traffic service position functions for
				several local offices at one location;
(49) "Operator trunks," a general term,
				ordinarily applied to trunks between manually operated switchboard positions
				and local dial central offices in the same wire center;
(50) "Private line service," a service for
				communications between specified locations for a continuous period or for
				regularly recurring periods at stated hours;
(51) "Remote access line," an access line
				between a subscriber's premises in one toll rate center and a serving central
				office located in a different toll rate center;
(52) "Remote line location," a remotely
				located subscriber line access unit which is normally dependent upon the
				central processor of the host office for call processing functions;
(53) "Remote trunk arrangement," arrangement
				that permits the extension of traffic service position system functions to
				remote locations;
(54)
				"Reservation" or "reserved," that amount or quantity of property kept or set
				apart for a specific use;
(55)
				"Separations," the process by which a telecommunications company's property
				costs, revenues, expenses, taxes, and reserves are apportioned among its
				operations;
(56) "Service observing
				unit," a unit of work measurement which is used as the common denominator to
				express the relative time required for handling the various work functions at
				service observing boards;
(57)
				"Sheath miles," the actual length of cable in route miles;
(58) "Short haul toll traffic," a general
				term applied to messages toll traffic between nearby points, ordinarily less
				than 20 to 50 miles apart;
(59)
				"Special services," all services other than message telephones, such as private
				line services;
(60)
				"Station-to-station basis," the term applied to the basis of toll rate making
				which contemplates that the message toll service charge covers the use made of
				all facilities between the originating station and the terminating station,
				including the stations, and the services rendered in connection with their
				use;
(61) "Subscriber line" or
				"exchange line," a communication channel between a telephone station, or
				private branch exchange and the central office which serves it;
(62) "Subtributary office," a class of
				tributary office which does not have direct access to its toll center, but
				which is connected to its toll center office by means of circuits which are
				switched through to the toll center at another tributary office;
(63) "Tandem area," the general area served
				by the local offices having direct trunks or from the tandem office, consisting
				of one or more communities or including only a portion of a relatively large
				city;
(64) "Tandem circuit or
				trunk," a general classification of circuits or trunks between a tandem central
				office unit and any other central office or switchboard;
(65) "Tandem connection," a call switched at
				a tandem office;
(66) "Tandem
				office," a central office unit used primarily as an intermediate switching
				point for traffic between local central offices within the tandem
				area;
(67) "Toll," a combination of
				all interexchange traffic including both switched access and retail long
				distance services sold to end users;
(68) "Toll center," an office or group of
				offices within a city which generally handles the originating and incoming toll
				traffic for that city to or from other toll center areas and which handles
				through switched traffic;
(69)
				"Toll center area," the area served by a toll center, including the toll center
				city and the communities served by tributaries of the toll center;
(70) "Toll center toll office," a toll
				office, as contrasted to a local office, in a toll center city;
(71) "Toll circuit," a general term applied
				to interexchange trunks used primarily for toll traffic;
(72) "Toll connecting trunk," a general
				classification of trunks carrying toll traffic and ordinarily extending between
				a local office and a toll office, except trunks classified as tributary
				circuits, including toll switching trunks, recording trunks, and
				recording-completing trunks;
(73)
				"Toll office," a central office used primarily for supervising and switching
				toll traffic;
(74) "Traffic service
				position system (TSPS) complex," all groups of operator positions, wherever
				located, associated with the same TSPS stored program control unit;
(75) "Tributary circuit," a circuit between a
				tributary office and a toll switchboard or intertoll dialing equipment in a
				toll center city;
(76) "Tributary
				office," a local office which is located outside the exchange in which a toll
				center is located, which has a different rate center from its toll center and
				which usually tickets and times only a part of its originating toll traffic,
				but which may ticket or time all or none of such traffic;
(77) "Trunks," circuits between switchboards
				or other switching equipment, as distinguished from circuits which extend
				between central office switching equipment and information
				origination/termination equipment;
(78) "Weighted standard work second," a
				measurement of traffic operating work which is used to express the relative
				time required to handle the various kinds of calls or work functions, which is
				weighted to reflect appropriate degrees of waiting-to-serve time;
(79) "Wide area telephone service (WATS)," a
				toll service offering for customer dial-type telecommunications between a given
				customer station and stations within specified geographic rate areas employing
				a single access line between the customer location and the serving central
				office. Each access line may be arranged for either outward, OUT-WATS, or
				inward, IN-WATS, service or both;
(80) "Wideband channel," a communication
				channel of a band-width equivalent to 12 or more voice-grade
				channels;
(81) "Working loop," a
				revenue-producing pair of wires, or its equivalent, between a customer's
				station and the central office from which the station is served.
General Authority:
SDCL
					 49-1-11,
					 49-31-5,
					 49-31-18.
Law Implemented:
SDCL
					 49-31-18.
Glossary, 47 C.F.R. § 36
					 (1991).