New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 14 - PUBLIC UTILITIES
Chapter 10 - TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS
Section 14:10-1.2 - Definitions
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Additional definitions that apply to this chapter can be found at N.J.A.C. 14:3-1.1.
"Access code" means a sequence of numbers that, when dialed, permits a telephone caller to obtain a connection to the carrier associated with that code. All access codes take the form of 10XXX or 101XXXX, with X meaning any numerical value from 0 to 9.
"Adult-oriented information-access telephone service" means a telephone service to which a customer can subscribe, through which, for a charge, sexually explicit messages are furnished to a caller.
"Agent" means any person, as defined at N.J.A.C. 14:3-1.1, including, but not limited to, employees, servants or marketers, acting on behalf of another person, in order to bring about, modify, affect performance of, or terminate obligations between the other person and a third party.
"Aggregator" means a person, as defined at N.J.A.C. 14:3-1.1, that, in the ordinary course of its business, makes PPTS, as defined in this section, available to the public or to transient users, and that provides operator-assisted services through either automated store and forward technology or through an operator service provider. This term includes but is not limited to hotels, motels, hospitals, and universities.
"Alternate operator service provider" or "AOS" means a carrier that leases lines from a LEC and/or an IXC, and uses the leased lines and its own operators to provide operator-assisted services for intrastate calls. An AOS is a type of OSP, as defined in this section.
"Automated intervention" means automated store and forward technology, through which the placement or charging of a telephone call is provided without human involvement in each call or charge.
"Branding" means verbal identification of the OSP prior to connection of a call and starting the timing of the call for charging purposes.
"Carrier" or "telecommunications carrier" means a telephone utility, including an ILEC, an IXC, or a CLEC, and/or a reseller, as those terms are defined in this section.
"Clear" means, in regards to a problem or request for assistance with telecommunications service, to resolve the problem or satisfy the request.
"Competitive local exchange carrier" (CLEC) means a local exchange telecommunications carrier, other than an incumbent local exchange carrier, to which the Board has granted authority to provide telecommunications services.
"Competitive telecommunications services" means any telecommunications service that the Board has determined to be competitive pursuant to 48:2-21.1 9.
"Correctional facility" means an institution, including a prison, jail or detention center, operated by a governmental entity, which is dedicated to the treatment, rehabilitation or confinement of criminal offenders.
"Customer provided pay telephone service" or "CPPTS" means telephone service furnished to the public, for a per-use fee, by an individual, business or partnership or corporation that is a reseller.
"Customer provided pay telephone service provider" or "CPPTS provider" means the customer of record that purchases a CPPTS line and is responsible for the pay telephone instrument.
"Exchange access" means the provision of exchange services for the purpose of originating or terminating interexchange telecommunications. Such services are provided by facilities in an exchange area for the transmission, switching or routing of interexchange telecommunications that originate or terminate within the exchange area.
"FCC" means the Federal Communications Commission, which is a United States government agency.
"Facilities-based carrier" means a carrier or TSP that owns some portions of the telephone system, and that uses its own facilities for some portion of its provision of telecommunications service. Examples of facilities are local loop, transport and switches.
"Incumbent local exchange carrier" (ILEC) means a facilities-based telecommunications carrier with a Board-approved tariff in effect prior to February 8, 1996, which authorizes the carrier to provide telecommunications services in New Jersey. An ILEC may also operate as an OSP.
"Information provider" means an entity that uses LEC or IXC telecommunications services to provide information to callers for a fee, for example, adult-oriented information-access telephone services to provide sexually explicit messages.
"Interexchange carrier" or "IXC" means a carrier, other than a local exchange carrier, that is authorized by the Board to provide long-distance telecommunications services.
"InterLATA toll call" means a toll call that originates in one LATA and terminates in another.
"IntraLATA toll call" means a toll call that originates and terminates in a single LATA.
"Intrastate telecommunications service" means a telecommunications service which remains within the boundaries of New Jersey, regardless of the specific routing of the call.
"Local Access Transport Area" or "LATA" means a geographic area, outside of which a Bell Operating Company does not carry telephone calls. (See United States v. Western Electric, 569 F. Supp. 990 (D.D.C. 1983).)
"Local call" means a call within a local calling area, as defined in this section.
"Local calling area" is a group of exchange areas in which an end-user can call without an extra fee, over and above the monthly local calling fee. The local calling area is delineated in an ILEC's tariff. A local calling area is a subset of a LATA.
"Local exchange carrier" or "LEC" means an ILEC or a CLEC, as defined in this section.
"Operator-assisted services" means services that assist callers in placing or charging a telephone call, either through live intervention or automated intervention.
"Operator service provider" or "OSP" means a facilities-based telecommunications carrier that provides operator-assisted services.
"Presubscribed OSP" means an OSP that a customer has chosen to provide operator assisted services for intrastate calls from a telephone that the customer owns, so that an end-user can place a call from the telephone using the OSP, without having to dial an access code.
"Primary interexchange carrier" or "PIC" means an interexchange carrier, as defined in this section, that a customer has chosen to provide interexchange service, so that the customer can place a toll call from its landline using the PIC without having to dial an access code.
"Public pay telephone service" or "PPTS" means telephone service provided in an area used by the transient public, for public use for a per-use fee. This term includes customer provided pay telephone service, as defined in this section.
"Public pay telephone service provider" or "PPTS provider" means a person, as defined at 14:3-1.1, that provides PPTS.
"Reseller" means a non facilities-based carrier that leases lines or other physical infrastructure from a facilities-based carrier for use in providing telecommunications services to customers.
"Retail customer" is an end user that purchases telecommunications services for their own use and not for resale.
"Slamming" means an unauthorized change of a customer's primary interexchange carrier or the failure to execute an authorized change in a customer's primary interexchange carrier.
"Splashing" means the practice of a carrier calculating the charge for a long distance call initiated at a public pay telephone based on the location from which the long distance carrier picks up the call, rather than on the call's point of origin. Splashing typically occurs when a PPTS call is routed to a call center, and the carrier picks up the call from the call center. Then the carrier charges the caller as if the call originated at the call center, rather than at the public pay telephone. If the call center is located at a substantial distance from the PPTS where the call originated, the carrier's charges could be substantially increased by the use of the call center rather than the initiation point of the call.
"Subscriber" means a telecommunications service customer of a LEC or IXC.
"Telecommunications" means the transmission, between or among points specified by the user, or information of the user's choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received.
"Telecommunications service" means the offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the facilities used.
"Telecommunications service provider" or "TSP" has the same meaning as "carrier," as defined in this section.
"Telephone utility" means a public utility, as defined at N.J.A.C. 14:3-1.1, as well as any entity, as defined at N.J.A.C. 14:3-1.1, that provides telecommunications services to the public.
"Toll call" means a call that terminates outside the local calling area in which the call originated. The local calling area is defined in the ILEC's tariffs filed with and approved by the Board.
"Toll service" means the provision of toll calls.
"Type of service" means the category of telephone services provided to customers by telecommunications carriers. Examples of such types of service include, but are not limited to, toll, wide area telephone service, toll free, operator services, channel services, virtual private networks and optional services.
"Wholesale customer" means an entity that purchases telecommunications services for resale to others.
