(A) voice grade dial tone residential service consisting
of flat rate service or local measured service, if chosen by the customer
and offered by the DCTU;
(B) if applicable, mandatory services, including EAS,
extended metropolitan service, or ELCS;
(C) tone dialing service;
(D) access to 911 service;
(E) access to dual party relay service;
(F) the ability to report service problems seven days
a week;
(G) access to business office;
(H) primary directory listing;
(I) toll blocking service; and
(J) non-published service and non-listed service at
the customer's option.
(178) Premises--A tract of land or real estate including
buildings and other appurtenances thereon.
(179) Pricing flexibility--Discounts and other forms
of pricing flexibility may not be preferential, prejudicial, or discriminatory.
Pricing flexibility includes:
(A) customer specific contracts;
(B) volume, term, and discount pricing;
(C) zone density pricing, with zone to be defined as
an exchange;
(D) packaging of services; and
(E) other promotional pricing flexibility.
(180) Primary interexchange carrier (PIC)--The provider
chosen by a customer to carry that customer's toll calls.
(181) Primary interexchange carrier (PIC) freeze indicator--An
indicator that the end user has directed the CTU to make no changes
in the end user's PIC.
(182) Primary rate interface (PRI) integrated services
digital network (ISDN)--One of the access methods to ISDN, the 1.544-Mbps
PRI comprises either twenty-three 64 Kbps B-channels and one 64 Kbps
D-channel (23B+D) or twenty-four 64 Kbps B-channels (24B) when the
associated call signaling is provided by another PRI in the group.
(183) Primary service--The initial provision of voice
grade access between the customer's premises and the switched telecommunications
network. This includes the initial connection to a new customer or
the move of an existing customer to a new premises but does not include
complex services.
(184) Print translations--The temporary storage of
a message in an operator's screen during the actual process of relaying
a conversation.
(185) Privacy issue--An issue that arises when a telecommunications
provider proposes to offer a new telecommunications service or feature
that would result in a change in the outflow of information about
a customer. The term privacy issue is to be construed broadly. It
includes, but is not limited to, changes in the following:
(A) the type of information about a customer that is
released;
(B) the customers about whom information is released;
(C) the entity or entities to whom the information
about a customer is released;
(D) the technology used to convey the information;
(E) the time at which the information is conveyed;
and
(F) any other change in the collection, use, storage,
or release of information.
(186) Private line--A transmission path that is dedicated
to a customer and that is not connected to a switching facility of
a telecommunications utility, except that a dedicated transmission
path between switching facilities of interexchange carriers shall
be considered a private line.
(187) Proceeding--A hearing, investigation, inquiry,
or other procedure for finding facts or making a decision. The term
includes a denial of relief or dismissal of a complaint. It may be
rulemaking or non-rulemaking; rate setting or non-rate setting.
(188) Promotional rate--A temporary tariff, fare, toll,
rental or other compensation charged by a certificated telecommunications
utility (CTU) to new or new and existing customers and designed to
induce customers to test a service. A promotional rate shall incorporate
a reduction or a waiver of some rate element in the tariffed rates
of the service, or a reduction or waiver of the service's installation
charge and/or service connection charges, and shall not incorporate
any charge for discontinuance of the service by the customer. Such
rates may not be offered for basic local telecommunications service,
including local measured service.
(189) Promotional Service--A service offered to customers
at a promotional rate or rates.
(190) Provider of pay telephone service--The entity
that purchases PTAS from a CTU and registers with the Public Utility
Commission as a provider of PTS to end users.
(191) Public safety answering point (PSAP)--A continuously
operated communications facility established or authorized by local
government authorities that answers 9-1-1 calls originating within
a given service area, as further defined in Texas Health and Safety
Code Chapters 771 and 772. The term includes an emergency communications
center.
(192) Public utility or utility--A person or river
authority that owns or operates for compensation in this state equipment
or facilities to convey, transmit, or receive communications over
a telephone system as a dominant carrier. The term includes a lessee,
trustee, or receiver of any of those entities, or a combination of
those entities. The term does not include a municipal corporation.
A person is not a public utility solely because the person:
(A) furnishes or furnishes and maintains a private
system;
(B) manufactures, distributes, installs, or maintains
customer premises communications equipment and accessories; or
(C) furnishes a telecommunications service or commodity
only to itself, its employees, or its tenants as an incident of employment
or tenancy, if that service or commodity is not resold to or used
by others.
(193) Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA)--The enabling
statute for the Public Utility Commission of Texas, located in the
Texas Utilities Code Annotated, §§11.001 - 66.016 (West
2007, Supplement 2013).
(194) Qualifying low-income consumer--A consumer that
participates in one of the following programs: Medicaid, food stamps,
Supplemental Security Income, federal public housing assistance, or
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
(195) Qualifying services--
(A) residential flat rate basic local exchange service;
(B) residential local exchange access service; and
(C) residential local area calling usage.
(196) Rate--Includes:
(A) any compensation, tariff, charge, fare, toll, rental,
or classification that is directly or indirectly demanded, observed,
charged, or collected by a public utility for a service, product,
or commodity, described in the definition of utility in the Public
Utility Regulatory Act §31.002 or §51.002; and
(B) a rule, practice, or contract affecting the compensation,
tariff, charge, fare, toll, rental, or classification.
(197) Reciprocal compensation--An arrangement between
two carriers in which each of the two carriers receives compensation
from the other carrier for the transport and termination on each carrier's
network facilities of local telecommunications traffic that originates
on the network facilities of the other carrier.
(198) Reclassification area--The geographic area within
the electing ILEC's territory, consisting of one or more exchange
areas, for which it seeks reclassification of a service.
(199) Redirect the call--A procedure used by operator
service providers (OSPs) that transmits a signal back to the originating
telephone instrument that causes the instrument to disconnect the
OSP's connection and to redial the digits originally dialed by the
caller directly to the local exchange carrier's network.
(200) Regional planning commission--The meaning established
in Texas Health and Safety Code §771.001(10).
(201) Regulatory authority--In accordance with the
context where it is found, either the commission or the governing
body of a municipality.
(202) Relay Texas Advisory Committee (RTAC)--The committee
authorized by the Public Utility Regulatory Act, §56.110 and
1997 Texas General Laws Chapter 149.
(203) Relay Texas--The name by which telecommunications
relay service in Texas is known.
(204) Relay Texas administrator--The individual employed
by the commission to oversee the administration of statewide telecommunications
relay service.
(205) Repeated trouble report--A customer trouble report
regarding a specific line or circuit occurring within 30 days or one
calendar month of a previously cleared trouble report on the same
line or circuit.
Cont'd... |