| (88) Exchange area--The geographic territory delineated
as an exchange area by official commission boundary maps. An exchange
area usually embraces a city or town and its environs. There is usually
a uniform set of charges for telecommunications service within the
exchange area. An exchange area may be served by more than one central
office and/or one certificated telephone utility. An exchange area
may also be referred to as an exchange.
(89) Exempt Carrier--A nondominant telecommunications
utility that satisfies any of the criteria of PURA §52.154.
(90) Expenses--Costs incurred in the provision of services
that are expensed, rather than capitalized, in accordance with the
Uniform System of Accounts applicable to the carrier.
(91) Experimental service--A new service that is proposed
to be offered on a temporary basis for a specified period not to exceed
one year from the date the service is first provided to any customer.
(92) Extended area service (EAS)--A telephone switching
and trunking arrangement which provides for optional calling service
by DCTUs within a local access and transport area and between two
contiguous exchanges or between an exchange and a contiguous metropolitan
exchange local calling area. For purposes of this definition, a metropolitan
exchange local calling area shall include all exchanges having local
or mandatory EAS calling throughout all portions of any of the following
exchanges: Austin metropolitan exchange, Corpus Christi metropolitan
exchange, Dallas metropolitan exchange, Fort Worth metropolitan exchange,
Houston metropolitan exchange, San Antonio metropolitan exchange,
or Waco metropolitan exchange. EAS is provided at rate increments
in addition to local exchange rates, rather than at toll message charges.
(93) Extended local calling service (ELCS)--Service
provided pursuant to §26.219 and §26.221 of this title (relating
to Administration of Expanded Local Calling Requests; and Applications
to Establish or Increase Expanded Local Calling Service Surcharges).
(94) E911 or E9-1-1--9-1-1 service that is capable
of providing automatic number identification, automatic location identification,
selective routing, and selective transfer.
(95) Facilities--All the plant and equipment of a public
utility, including all tangible and intangible real and personal property
without limitation, and any and all means and instrumentalities in
any manner owned, operated, leased, licensed, used, controlled, furnished,
or supplied for, by, or in connection with the business of any public
utility, including any construction work in progress allowed by the
commission.
(96) Facilities-based provider--A telecommunications
provider that provides telecommunications services using facilities
that it owns or leases or a combination of facilities that it owns
and leases, including unbundled network elements.
(97) Foreign exchange (FX)--Exchange service furnished
by means of a circuit connecting a customer's station to a primary
serving office of another exchange.
(98) Foreign serving office (FSO)--Exchange service
furnished by means of a circuit connecting a customer's station to
a serving office of the same exchange but outside of the serving office
area in which the station is located.
(99) Forward-looking common costs--Economic costs efficiently
incurred in providing a group of elements or services that cannot
be attributed directly to individual elements or services.
(100) Forward-looking economic cost--The sum of the
total element long-run incremental cost of an element and a reasonable
allocation of its forward-looking common costs.
(101) Forward-looking economic cost per unit--The forward-looking
economic cost of the element as defined in this section, divided by
a reasonable projection of the sum of the total number of units of
the element that the DCTU is likely to provide to requesting telecommunications
carriers and the total number of units of the element that the DCTU
is likely to use in offering its own services, during a reasonable
time period.
(102) Geographic scope--The geographic area in which
the holder of a COA or of a SPCOA is authorized to provide service.
(103) Grade of service--The number of customers a line
is designated to serve.
(104) Health Center--A federally qualified health center
service delivery site.
(105) Hearing--Any proceeding at which evidence is
taken on the merits of the matters at issue, not including prehearing
conferences.
(106) Hearing carryover--A technology that allows an
individual who is speech-impaired to hear the other party in a telephone
conversation and to use specialized telecommunications devices to
send communications through the telecommunications relay service operator.
(107) High cost area--A geographic area for which the
costs established using a forward-looking economic cost methodology
exceed the benchmark levels established by the commission.
(108) High cost assistance (HCA)--A program administered
by the commission in accordance with the provisions of §26.403
of this title.
(109) Identity--The name, address, telephone number,
and/or facsimile number of a person, whether natural, partnership,
municipal corporation, cooperative corporation, corporation, association,
governmental subdivision, or state agency and the relationship of
the person to the entity being represented.
(110) Impulse noise--Any momentary occurrence of the
noise on a channel significantly exceeding the normal noise peaks.
It is evaluated by counting the number of occurrences that exceed
a threshold. This noise degrades voice and data transmission.
(111) Incumbent local exchange company (ILEC)--A local
exchange company that had a CCN on September 1, 1995.
(112) Informational notice--Notice that is filed in
connection with nonbasic services, new service offerings, and pricing
and packaging flexibility if required by Public Utility Regulatory
Act Chapter 52, 58, or 59.
(113) Information sharing program--Instruction, learning,
and training that is transmitted from one site to one or more sites
by telecommunications services that are used by a library predominantly
for such instruction, learning, or training, including video, data,
voice, and electronic information.
(114) Integrated services digital network (ISDN)--A
digital network architecture that provides a wide variety of communications
services, a standard set of user-network messages, and integrated
access to the network. Access methods to the ISDN are the Basic Rate
Interface (BRI) and the Primary Rate Interface (PRI).
(115) Interactive multimedia communications--Real-time,
two-way, interactive voice, video, and data communications conducted
over networks that link geographically dispersed locations. This definition
includes interactive communications within or between buildings on
the same campus or library site.
(116) Intercept service--A service arrangement provided
by the local exchange carrier whereby calls placed to a disconnected
or discontinued telephone number are intercepted and the calling party
is informed by an operator or by a recording that the called telephone
number has been disconnected, discontinued, changed to another number,
or otherwise is not in service.
(117) Interconnection--Generally means: The point in
a network where a customer's transmission facilities interface with
the dominant carrier's network under the provisions of this section.
More particularly it means: The termination of local traffic including
basic telecommunications service as delineated in §26.403 of
this title or integrated services digital network (ISDN) as defined
in this section and/or EAS/ELCS traffic of a CTU using the local access
lines of another CTU, as described in §26.272(d)(4)(A) of this
title (relating to Interconnection). Interconnection shall include
non-discriminatory access to signaling systems, databases, facilities
and information as required to ensure interoperability of networks
and efficient, timely provision of services to customers without permitting
access to network proprietary information or customer proprietary
network information, as defined in this section, unless otherwise
permitted in §26.272 of this title.
(118) Interconnector--A customer that interfaces with
the dominant carrier's network under the provisions of §26.271
of this title (relating to Expanded Interconnection).
(119) Interexchange carrier (IXC)--A carrier providing
any means of transporting intrastate telecommunications messages between
local exchanges, but not solely within local exchanges, in the State
of Texas. The term may include a CTU or CTU affiliate to the extent
that it is providing such service. An entity is not an IXC solely
because of:
(A) the furnishing, or furnishing and maintenance of
a private system;
(B) the manufacture, distribution, installation, or
maintenance of customer premises equipment;
Cont'd... |
