| (206) Residual charge--The per-minute charge designed
to account for historical contribution to joint and common costs made
by switched transport services.
(207) Retail service--A telecommunications service
is considered a retail service when it is provided to residential
or business end users and the use of the service is other than resale.
Each tariffed or contract offering which a customer may purchase to
the exclusion of other offerings shall be considered a service. For
example: the various mileage bands for standard toll services are
rate elements, not services; however, individual optional calling
plans that can be purchased individually and which are offered as
alternatives to each other are services, not rate elements.
(208) Return-on-assets--After-tax net operating income
divided by total assets.
(209) Reversal of partial deregulation--The ability
of a minimum of 10% of the members of a partially deregulated cooperative
to request, in writing, that a vote be conducted to determine whether
members prefer to reverse partial deregulation. Ten percent shall
be calculated based upon the total number of members of record as
of the calendar month preceding receipt of the request from members
for reversal of partial deregulation.
(210) Rule--A statement of general applicability that
implements, interprets, or prescribes law or policy, or describes
the procedure or practice requirements of the commission. The term
includes the amendment or repeal of a prior rule but does not include
statements concerning only the internal management or organization
of the commission and not affecting private rights or procedures.
(211) Rulemaking proceeding--A proceeding conducted
pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, Texas Government Code,
Chapter 2001, Subchapter B, to adopt, amend, or repeal a commission
rule.
(212) Rural incumbent local exchange company (ILEC)--An
ILEC that qualifies as a "rural telephone company" as defined in 47
United States Code §3(37) and/or 47 United States Code §251(f)(2).
(213) Selective routing--The feature provided with
9-1-1 or 311 service by which 9-1-1 or 311 calls are automatically
directed to the appropriate answering point for serving the location
from which the call originates.
(214) Selective transfer--A public safety answering
point initiating the routing of a 9-1-1 call to a response agency
by operation of one of several buttons typically designated as police,
fire, and emergency medical, based on the emergency service number
of the caller.
(215) Separation--The division of plant, revenues,
expenses, taxes, and reserves applicable to exchange or local service
if these items are used in common to provide public utility service
to both local exchange telephone service and other service, such as
interstate or intrastate toll service.
(216) Service--Has its broadest and most inclusive
meaning. The term includes any act performed, anything supplied, and
any facilities used or supplied by a public utility in the performance
of the utility's duties under the Public Utility Regulatory Act to
its patrons, employees, other public utilities, and the public. The
term also includes the interchange or facilities between two or more
public utilities. The term does not include the printing, distribution,
or sale of advertising in a telephone directory.
(217) Service connection charge--A charge designed
to recover the costs of non-recurring activities associated with connection
of local exchange telephone service.
(218) Service order system--The system used by a telecommunications
provider that, among other functions, tracks customer service requests
and billing data.
(219) Service provider--Any entity that offers a product
or service to a customer and that directly or indirectly charges to
or collects from a customer's bill an amount for the product or service
on a customer's bill received from a billing telecommunications utility.
(220) Service provider certificate of operating authority
(SPCOA) reseller--A holder of a service provider certificate of operating
authority that uses only resold telecommunications services provided
by an ILEC or by a COA holder or by a SPCOA holder.
(221) Service restoral charge--A charge applied by
the DCTU to restore service to a customer's telephone line after it
has been suspended by the DCTU.
(222) Serving wire center (SWC)--The CTU designated
central office which serves the access customer's point of demarcation.
(223) Signaling for tandem switching--The carrier identification
code (CIC) and the OZZ code or equivalent information needed to perform
tandem switching functions. The CIC identifies the interexchange carrier
and the OZZ digits identify the call type and thus the interexchange
carrier trunk to which traffic should be routed.
(224) Small certificated telecommunications utility
(CTU)--A CTU with fewer than 2.0% of the nation's subscriber lines
installed in the aggregate nationwide.
(225) Small local exchange company (SLEC)--Any incumbent
CTU as of September 1, 1995, that has fewer than 31,000 access lines
in service in this state, including the access lines of all affiliated
incumbent local exchange companies within the state, or a telephone
cooperative organized pursuant to the Telephone Cooperative Act, Texas
Utilities Code Annotated, Chapter 162.
(226) Small incumbent local exchange company (Small
ILEC)--An ILEC that is a cooperative corporation or has, together
with all affiliated ILECs, fewer than 31,000 access lines in service
in Texas.
(227) Spanish speaking person--A person who speaks
any dialect of the Spanish language exclusively or as their primary
language.
(228) Special access--A transmission path connecting
customer designated premises to each other either directly or through
a hub or hubs where bridging, multiplexing or network reconfiguration
service functions are performed and includes all exchange access not
requiring switching performed by the dominant carrier's end office
switches.
(229) Specialized Telecommunications Assistance Program
(STAP)--The program described in §26.415 of this title (relating
to Specialized Telecommunications Assistance Program (STAP)).
(230) Specialized Telecommunications Assistance Program
(STAP) voucher--A voucher issued by the Texas Department of Assistive
and Rehabilitative Services under the equipment distribution program,
in accordance with its rules, that an eligible individual may use
to acquire eligible specialized telecommunications devices from a
vendor of such equipment.
(231) Stand-alone costs--The stand-alone costs of an
element or service are defined as the forward-looking costs that an
efficient entrant would incur in providing only that element or service.
(232) Station--A telephone instrument or other terminal
device.
(233) Study area--An incumbent local exchange company's
(ILEC's) existing service area in a given state.
(234) Supplemental services--Telecommunications features
or services offered by a CTU for which analogous services or products
may be available to the customer from a source other than a DCTU.
Supplemental services shall not be construed to include optional extended
area calling plans that a DCTU may offer pursuant to §26.217
of this title (relating to Administration of Extended Area Service
(EAS) Requests), or pursuant to a final order of the commission in
a proceeding pursuant to the Public Utility Regulatory Act, Chapter
53.
(235) Suspension of service--That period during which
the customer's telephone line does not have dial tone but the customer's
telephone number is not deleted from the central office switch and
databases.
(236) Switched access--Access service that is provided
by CTUs to access customers and that requires the use of CTU network
switching or common line facilities generally, but not necessarily,
for the origination or termination of interexchange calls. Switched
access includes all forms of transport provided by the CTU over which
switched access traffic is delivered.
(237) Switched access demand--Switched access minutes
of use, or other appropriate measure where not billed on a minute
of use basis, for each switched access rate element, normalized for
out of period billings. For the purposes of this section, switched
access demand shall include minutes of use billed for the local switching
rate element.
(238) Switched access minutes--The measured or assumed
duration of time that a CTU's network facilities are used by access
customers. Access minutes are measured for the purpose of calculating
access charges applicable to access customers.
(239) Switched transport--Transmission between a CTU's
central office (including tandem-switching offices) and an interexchange
carrier's point of presence.
Cont'd... |
