SECTION 165:57-1-4. Definitions  


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  •   The following words and terms, when used in this Chapter, shall have the following meaning unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
    "Access code" means the preliminary digits that a user must dial to be connected to a particular outgoing trunk group or line.
    "Aggregator" means any person or entity that, in the ordinary course of its operations, makes telephones available to the public or to transient users of its premises for intrastate telephone calls including calls using an operator services provider; i.e., customers of an OSP. Aggregators include, but are not limited to, hotels, motels, hospitals, universities, airports, gas stations, and to the extent permitted by law, payphone service providers. Aggregator does not include inmate-only coinless phones provided by correctional institutions but shall include telephones provided for use by the public in visitation areas of correctional institutions.
    "Answer supervision" means a network control signal sent from the terminating location to the originating location to inform the originating location that a call has been answered and a network control signal from the originating end to the terminating end to inform the terminating end that a calling party has hung up. In the public switched network, the answer supervision signal is used to start and stop billing for a call.
    "Billing agent" means an entity which provides bills to an end-user for services received from an OSP.
    "Blocking" means any and/or all of the following:
    (1)   The formatting of data into blocks for purposes of transmission, storage, checking, or other functions.
    (2)   Denying access to, or use of, a facility, system, or component.
    (3)   The failure of a telecommunications network to meet a user service demand, because of the lack of an available communications path.
    "Brand" means the audible and distinct identification by the OSP to the consumer of the OSP presubscribed by the aggregator.
    "Call splashing" means the transfer of a telephone call from one OSP to another such provider in such a manner that the subsequent provider is unable or unwilling to determine the location of the origination of the call and, because of such inability or unwillingness, is prevented from billing the call on the basis of the actual originating location.
    "Commission" means the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
    "Complaint" means any oral or written report given to an OSP by an aggregator or consumer of an OSP's service and/or the Commission's Consumer Services Division relating to dissatisfaction with the provision of or the rate(s) charged for the OSP's service(s). Each complaint shall count as a separate report regardless of whether subsequent reports relate to the same situation giving rise to the dissatisfaction with the provision of or the rate(s) charged for the OSP's regulated services.
    "Consumer" means any person initiating any intrastate telephone call using the assistance of a live or automated operator or any person receiving an intrastate telephone call handled by an OSP in which the called party will be paying for the service.
    "Customer trouble report" means any oral or written report given to the OSP's repair service or contact person by an aggregator or consumer of an OSP's service and/or the Commission's Consumer Services Division relating to a defect or difficulty or dissatisfaction with the provision of the OSP's services. Each trouble report shall count as a separate report regardless of whether subsequent reports relate to the same defect, difficulty, or dissatisfaction with the provision of the OSP's regulated services.
    "End-user" means the consumer.
    "Equal access" means a condition where the local exchange access service offered by a telephone company is made available in equal kind, quality and price to all long distance companies. Equal access also describes a condition where customers may choose for themselves the interexchange carrier to which their long distance calls are to be routed, using the same number of dialed digits regardless of which interexchange carrier is chosen.
    "Equal access code" means an access code that allows the public to obtain access to the carrier associated with that code; i.e., 101XXXX.
    "FCC" means Federal Communications Commission.
    "ILEC" means an Incumbent Local Exchange Company, as defined in OAC 165:55.
    "Interexchange telecommunications carrier" ("IXC") means any person, firm, partnership, corporation, or other entity, except incumbent LECs, resellers or OSPs, engaged in furnishing regulated interexchange telecommunications services under the jurisdiction of the Commission.
    "InterLATA call" means any call which is originated in one LATA and terminated in another LATA.
    "Interstate call" means any call which is originated in one state and terminated within the boundaries of another state.
    "Intrastate call" means any call which is originated and terminated within the boundaries of the State of Oklahoma, regardless of whether such call is routed across state boundaries prior to reaching its termination point.
    "Joint aggregator" describes a situation where more than one party exercises control over telephone equipment, whether through ownership of the equipment, control of access to the equipment or some other means. Each party is jointly responsible as an aggregator under these rules.
    "LATA" means Local Access and Transport Area as defined in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47 Part 53.3.
    "LEC" means local exchange company, which is a telephone company authorized by the Commission to provide telephone service in a telephone exchange or exchanges.
    "Operator service provider" ("OSP") means any common carrier that provides intrastate operator services or any other person or entity determined by the Commission to be providing operator services.
    "Operator services" means the initiation of any intrastate telecommunications service, including, but not limited to, services from an aggregator location, or to presubscribed customers, which services include, as a component, any automated or live assistance to a consumer to arrange for billing or completion, or both, of an intrastate telephone call.
    "Payphone service provider" means any person, firm, partnerships, corporation, cooperative corporation or other lawful entity providing payphone service as defined in OAC 165:58.
    "Presubscribed customer" means a customer that has indicated their choice of a primary interexchange carrier for use at their location. The customer's toll calls will then be routed to their presubscribed interexchange carrier, unless the customer designates otherwise, on a per-call basis, by use of a carrier access code.
    "Reseller" means any person, partnership, cooperative corporation, or lawful entity that offers telecommunications services to the public through the use of the transmission facilities of an underlying carrier or a combination of its own facilities and the transmission facilities of an underlying carrier for resale to the public for profit, as defined in OAC 165:56.
    "Rules of Practice" means OAC 165:5.
    "Service" means telecommunications service in its broadest and most inclusive sense, and includes any and all acts done, rendered, or performed and any and all things furnished or supplied by the OSP in the provision of regulated offerings to consumers.
    "Streamlined tariff revision(s)" means revision(s) proposed by an OSP which will become effective without notice and hearing or order of the Commission, in the time frame established in OAC 165:57-7-5, unless suspended.
    "Telecommunications service provider" means all authorized providers of local exchange service, whether an incumbent LEC or a competitive LEC as defined in OAC 165:55.
    "Terms of Service" means rates, charges and terms and conditions for regulated services that a reseller elects to post, in a searchable format, on a publicly available website.
    "Zero minus ("0-") call" means an operator-assisted call where the calling party dials zero ("0") for an operator and waits until an operator comes on the line. The caller then states the telephone number they want to reach and the nature (person-to-person, collect, etc.) of the call.
    "Zero plus ("0+") call" means an operator-assisted call where the calling party dials zero ("0") followed by the number being called, including the area code. This dialing pattern is used mostly for collect, credit card, person-to-person and third-party-billed calls. The caller indicates the type of call after dialing is completed and an operator may come on line.
[Source: Added at 12 Ok Reg 2157, eff 7-1-95; Amended at 14 Ok Reg 2872, eff 7-15-97; Amended at 15 Ok Reg 3092, eff 7-15-98; Amended at 16 Ok Reg 2312, eff 7-1-99; Amended at 34 Ok Reg 1057, eff 9-14-18]