Washington Administrative Code › Title 480 - Utilities and Transportation Commission › Chapter 480-120 - Telephone companies › Part I - GENERAL RULES › Section 480-120-021 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 24-14, July 15, 2024
The definitions in this section apply throughout the chapter
				  except where there is an alternative definition in a specific section, or where
				  the context clearly requires otherwise.
"Access charge"
means a rate charged by a local
				  exchange company to an inter exchange company for the origination, transport,
				  or termination of a call to or from a customer of the local exchange company.
				  Such origination, transport, and termination may be accomplished either through
				  switched access service or through special or dedicated access service.
"Access line"
means a circuit providing exchange
				  service between a customer's standard network interface and a serving switching
				  center.
"Affiliate"
means an entity that directly or
				  indirectly owns or controls, is owned or controlled by, or is under common
				  ownership or control with, another entity.
"Affiliated interest"
means a person or
				  corporation as defined in
				  RCW
				  80.16.010.
"Ancillary services"
means all local service
				  features excluding basic service.
"Applicant"
means any person applying to a
				  telecommunications company for new service or reconnection of discontinued
				  service.
"Average busy hour"
means a time-consistent hour
				  of the day during which a switch or trunk carries the most traffic. This
				  definition is applied on an individual switch and an individual trunk
				  basis.
"Basic service"
means service that includes the
				  following:
* Single-party service;
* Voice grade access to the public switched network;
* Support for local use;
* Dual tone multifrequency signaling (touch-tone);
* Access to emergency services (E911);
* Access to operator services;
* Access to interexchange services;
* Access to directory assistance; and
* Toll limitation services.
"Business"
means a for profit or not-for-profit
				  organization, including, but not limited to, corporations, partnerships, sole
				  proprietorships, limited liability companies, government agencies, and other
				  entities or associations.
"Business days"
means days of the week excluding
				  Saturdays, Sundays, and official state holidays.
"Business office"
means an office or service
				  center provided and maintained by a company.
"Business service"
means service other than
				  residential service.
"Busy season"
means an annual, recurring, and
				  reasonably predictable three-month period of the year when a switch or trunk
				  carries the most traffic. This definition is applied on an individual switch
				  and an individual trunk basis.
"Call aggregator"
means any corporation,
				  company, partnership, or person, who, in the ordinary course of its operations,
				  makes telephones available to the public or to users of its premises for
				  telephone calls using a provider of operator services, including, but not
				  limited to, hotels, motels, hospitals, campuses, and pay phones (see also pay
				  phone service providers).
"Category of service"
means local, data services
				  such as digital subscriber line service, interexchange, or CMRS. Information
				  about a customer's intraLATA and interLATA primary interexchange carrier freeze
				  status is part of the local category.
"Central office"
means a company facility that
				  houses the switching and trunking equipment serving a defined area.
"Centrex"
means a telecommunications service
				  providing a customer with direct inward dialing to telephone extensions and
				  direct outward dialing from them.
"Class A company"
means a local exchange company
				  with two percent or more of the access lines within the state of Washington.
				  The method of determining whether a company is a Class A company is specified
				  in WAC 480-120-034 (Classification of
				  local exchange companies as Class A or Class B).
"Class B company"
means a local exchange company
				  with less than two percent of the access lines within the state of Washington.
				  The method of determining whether a company is a Class B company is specified
				  in WAC 480-120-034 (Classification of
				  local exchange companies as Class A or Class B).
"Commercial mobile radio service (CMRS)"
means
				  any mobile (wireless) telecommunications service that is provided for profit
				  that makes interconnected service available to the public or to such classes of
				  eligible users as to be effectively available to a substantial portion of the
				  public.
"Commission (agency)"
in a context meaning a
				  state agency, means the Washington utilities and transportation
				  commission.
"Company"
means any telecommunications company
				  as defined in
				  RCW
				  80.04.010.
"Competitively classified company"
means a
				  company that is classified as competitive by the commission pursuant to
				  RCW
				  80.36.320.
"Control"
means the possession, direct or
				  indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and
				  policies of a company, whether through the ownership of voting shares, by
				  contract, or otherwise.
"Customer"
means a person to whom the company is
				  currently providing service.
"Customer premises equipment (CPE)"
is equipment
				  located on the customer side of the SNI (other than a company) and used to
				  originate, route, or terminate telecommunications.
"Department"
means the department of social and
				  health services.
"Discontinue; discontinuation; discontinued"
means the termination or any restriction of service to a customer.
"Drop facilities"
means company-supplied wire
				  and equipment placed between a premises and the company distribution plant at
				  the applicant's property line.
"Due date"
means the date an action is required
				  to be completed by rule or, when permitted, the date chosen by a company and
				  provided to a customer as the date to complete an action.
"Eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC)"
means a carrier designated as an ETC pursuant to 47 U.S.C. Sec. 214 (e).
"Emergency response facility"
means fire
				  stations, hospitals, police stations, and state and municipal government
				  emergency operations centers.
"Exchange"
means a geographic area established
				  by a company for telecommunications service within that area.
"Extended area service (EAS)"
means telephone
				  service extending beyond a customer's exchange, for which the customer may pay
				  an additional flat-rate amount per month.
"Facility or facilities"
means lines, conduits,
				  ducts, poles, wires, cables, cross-arms, receivers, transmitters, instruments,
				  machines, appliances, instrumentalities and all devices, real estate,
				  easements, apparatus, property and routes used, operated, owned or controlled
				  by a telecommunications company to facilitate the provision of
				  telecommunications service.
"Force majeure"
means natural disasters,
				  including fire, flood, earthquake, windstorm, avalanche, mudslide, and other
				  similar events; acts of war or civil unrest when an emergency has been declared
				  by appropriate governmental officials; acts of civil or military authority;
				  embargoes; epidemics; terrorist acts; riots; insurrections; explosions; and
				  nuclear accidents.
"Interexchange"
means telephone calls, traffic,
				  facilities or other items that originate in one exchange and terminate in
				  another.
"Interexchange company"
means a company, or
				  division thereof, that provides long distance (toll) service.
"Interoffice facilities"
means facilities
				  connecting two or more telephone switching centers.
"InterLATA"
is a term used to describe services,
				  revenues, functions, etc., that relate to telecommunications originating in one
				  LATA and terminating outside of the originating LATA.
"IntraLATA"
is a term used to describe services,
				  revenues, functions, etc., that relate to telecommunications that originate and
				  terminate within the same LATA.
"Local access and transport area (LATA)"
means a
				  local access transport area as defined by the commission in conformance with
				  applicable federal law.
"Local calling area"
means one or more rate
				  centers within which a customer can place calls without incurring long-distance
				  (toll) charges.
"Local exchange company (LEC)"
means a company
				  providing local exchange telecommunications service.
"Major outages"
means a service failure lasting
				  for thirty or more minutes that causes the disruption of local exchange or toll
				  services to more than one thousand customers; total loss of service to a public
				  safety answering point or emergency response agency; intercompany trunks or
				  toll trunks not meeting service requirements for four hours or more and
				  affecting service; or an intermodal link blockage (no dial tone) in excess of
				  five percent for more than one hour in any switch or remote switch.
"Missed commitment"
means orders for exchange
				  access lines for which the company does not provide service by the due
				  date.
"Order date"
means the date when an applicant
				  requests service unless a company identifies specific actions a customer must
				  first take in order to be in compliance with tariffs or commission rules.
				  Except as provided in WAC
				  480-120-061 (Refusing service)
				  and 480-120-104 (Information to consumers), when specific actions are required
				  of the applicant, the order date becomes the date those actions have been
				  completed and the applicant notifies the company of that completion unless the
				  company has already installed or activated service.
"Pay phone"
or
"pay telephone"
means any telephone made available to the public on a fee-per-call basis
				  independent of any other commercial transaction. A pay phone or pay telephone
				  includes telephones that are coin-operated or are activated by calling collect
				  or using a calling card.
"Pay phone services"
means provision of pay
				  phone equipment to the public for placement of local exchange, interexchange,
				  or operator service calls.
"Pay phone service provider (PSP)"
means any
				  corporation, company, partnership, or person who owns or operates and makes pay
				  phones available to the public.
"Payment agency"
means a physical location
				  established by a local exchange company, either on its own premises or through
				  a subcontractor, for the purpose of receiving cash and urgent payments from
				  customers.
"Person"
means an individual, or an organization
				  such as a firm, partnership, corporation, municipal corporation, agency,
				  association or other entity.
"Prior obligation"
means an amount owed to a
				  local exchange company or an interexchange company for regulated services at
				  the time the company physically toll-restricts, interrupts, or discontinues
				  service for nonpayment.
"Proprietary"
means owned by a particular
				  person.
"Provision"
means supplying telecommunications
				  service to a customer.
"Public access line (PAL)"
means an access line
				  equipped with features to detect coins, permit the use of calling cards, and
				  such other features as may be used to provision a pay phone.
"Public safety answering point (PSAP)"
means an
				  answering location for enhanced 911 (E911) calls originating in a given area.
				  PSAPs are designated as primary or secondary. Primary PSAPs receive E911 calls
				  directly from the public; secondary PSAPs receive E911 calls only on a transfer
				  or relay basis from the primary PSAP. Secondary PSAPs generally serve as
				  centralized answering locations for a particular type of emergency call.
"Radio communications service company"
has the
				  meaning found in
				  RCW
				  80.04.010, except that for the purposes of
				  this section it includes only those companies providing two-way voice
				  communication as a common carrier.
"Residential service"
means basic service to a
				  household.
"Restricted basic service"
means either the
				  ability to receive incoming calls, make outgoing calls, or both through voice
				  grade access to the public switched network, including E911 access, but not
				  including other services that are a part of basic service.
"Results of operations"
means a fiscal year
				  financial statement concerning regulated operations that include revenues,
				  expenses, taxes, net operating income, and rate base. The rate of return is
				  also included as part of the results of operations. The rate of return is the
				  percentage of net operating income to the rate base.
"Service interruption"
means a loss of or
				  impairment of service that is not due to, and is not, a major outage.
"Service provider"
means any business that
				  offers a product or service to a customer, the charge for which appears on the
				  customer's telephone bill.
"Special circuit"
means an access line specially
				  conditioned to give it characteristics suitable for handling special or unique
				  services.
"Standard network interface (SNI)"
means the
				  protector that generally marks the point of interconnection between company
				  communications facilities and customer's terminal equipment, protective
				  apparatus, or wiring at a customer's premises. The network interface or
				  demarcation point is located on the customer's side of the company's protector,
				  or the equivalent thereof in cases where a protector is not employed.
"Station"
means a telephone instrument installed
				  for a customer to use for toll and exchange service.
"Subscriber list information (SLI)"
means any
				  information:
(a) Identifying the listed names of subscribers of a company
				  and those subscribers' telephone numbers, addresses, or primary advertising
				  classifications (as such classifications are assigned when service is
				  established), or any combination of listed names, numbers, addresses, or
				  classifications; and
(b) That the company or an affiliate has published, caused to
				  be published, or accepted for publication in any directory format.
"Subsidiary"
means any company in which the
				  telecommunications company owns directly or indirectly five percent or more of
				  the voting securities, unless the telecommunications company demonstrates it
				  does not have control.
"Support structure"
means the trench, pole, or
				  conduit used to provide a path for placement of drop facilities.
"Telecommunications service"
means the offering
				  of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of
				  users to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the
				  facilities used.
"Telemarketing"
means contacting a person by
				  telephone in an attempt to sell one or more products or services.
"Toll restriction"
or
"toll
				  restricted"
means a service that prevents the use of a local access line
				  to initiate a long distance call using a presubscribed interexchange
				  company.
"Traffic"
means telecommunications activity on a
				  telecommunications network, normally used in connection with measurements of
				  capacity of various parts of the network.
"Trouble report"
means a report of service
				  affecting network problems reported by customers, and does not include problems
				  on the customer's side of the SNI.
"Trunk"
means, in a telecommunications network,
				  a path connecting two switching systems used to establish end-to-end
				  connection. In some circumstances, both of its terminations may be in the same
				  switching system.
Statutory Authority:
					 RCW
					 80.36.010,
					 80.36.110,
					 80.36.320,
					 80.36.330,
					 80.36.333,
					 80.36.338,
					 80.01.040 and
					 80.04.160. 07-08-027 (Docket
					 UT-060676, General Order R-540), § 480-120-021, filed 3/27/07, effective
					 4/27/07. Statutory Authority:
					 RCW
					 80.01.040 and
					 80.04.160. 05-03-031 (Docket No.
					 UT 040015, General Order No. R-516), § 480-120-021, filed 1/10/05,
					 effective 2/10/05; 03-01-065 (Docket No. UT-990146, General Order No. R-507),
					 § 480-120-021, filed 12/12/02, effective 7/1/03. Statutory Authority:
					 RCW
					 80.04.160,
					 80.36.520 and
					 80.01.040. 99-02-020 (Order R-452,
					 Docket No. UT-970301), § 480-120-021, filed 12/29/98, effective 1/29/99.
					 Statutory Authority:
					 RCW
					 80.01.040. 93-06-055 (Order R-384, Docket No.
					 UT-921192), § 480-120-021, filed 2/26/93, effective 3/29/93. Statutory
					 Authority:
					 RCW
					 80.01.040 and
					 chapter
					 80.36 RCW. 91-13-078
					 (Order R-345, Docket No. UT-900726), § 480-120-021, filed 6/18/91,
					 effective 7/19/91. Statutory Authority:
					 RCW
					 80.01.040 and 1988 c 91. 89-04-044 (Order
					 R-293, Docket No. U-88-1882-R), § 480-120-021, filed 1/31/89. Statutory
					 Authority:
					 RCW
					 80.01.040. 86-11-009 (Order R-250, Cause No.
					 U-85-58), § 480-120-021, filed 5/12/86, effective 7/31/86. Statutory
					 Authority:
					 RCW
					 80.01.040 and 1985 c 450. 85-23-001 (Order
					 R-242, Cause No. U-85-56), § 480-120-021, filed 11/7/85. Statutory
					 Authority:
					 RCW
					 80.04.060. 79-10-060 (Order R-131, Cause No.
					 U-79-42), § 480-120-021, filed 9/18/79. Statutory Authority:
					 RCW
					 80.36.140. 79-03-031 (Order R-123, Cause No.
					 U-79-01), § 480-120-021, filed 2/28/79; Order R-25, § 480-120-021,
					 filed 5/5/71. Formerly WAC 480-120-030.