4 Colo. Code Regs. § 723-2-2001

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 1, January 10, 2025

Section 4 CCR 723-2-2001 - Definitions

The meaning of terms in Part 2 shall be consistent with general usage in the telecommunications industry unless specifically defined by Colorado statute or a more specific rule. In the event the general usage of terms in the telecommunications industry or the definitions anywhere in Part 2 conflict with statutory definitions, the statutory definitions control. In the event the general usage of terms in the telecommunications industry conflict with definitions anywhere within Part 2, the Part 2 definitions control. In the event another Commission rule of general applicability (such as in the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure) conflicts with Part 2 rules, the Part 2 rules control. Except as may be provided by applicable statute or more specifically applicable rule, the following definitions apply throughout this Part 2:

(a) "Access line" means the connection of a customer's premises to the public switched telephone network regardless of the type of technology used to connect the customer to the network.

(b) "Access to emergency services" means access to emergency telephone service as defined in § 29-11-101(14), C.R.S., to the extent the local government or the public safety organization has implemented 9-1-1.

(c) "Access to operator service" means access to a mechanized system or access through a real person to arrange for billing and/or completion of a telephone call.

(d) "Access to toll service" means the use of the network elements, including but not limited to loop, circuit, and switch facilities or their functional equivalents, necessary to access an interexchange provider's network.

(e) "Base rate area" means the geographic area within an exchange service area, as defined in the terms of service of a local exchange provider, wherein uniform rates that do not vary with distance from the central office apply to each class or grade of service.

(f) "Basic local exchange service" or "basic service" means the telecommunications service that provides:

(I) a local dial tone;

(II) local usage necessary to place or receive a call within an exchange area; and

(III) access to emergency, operator, and interexchange telecommunications services.

(g) "Busy hour" means the uninterrupted period of 60 minutes during the day when the traffic load offered to a particular switch, trunk, or network component is at its designed maximum load. The 60-minute periods are generally measured from hour-to-hour or from half-hour to half-hour.

(h) "Busy season" means a month or several months that may be non-consecutive, within a consecutive 12-month interval, when the maximum busy hour requirements are experienced excluding days with abnormal traffic volume, such as Christmas or Mother's Day. The busy season generally is at least 30 days in length and generally does not exceed 60 days in length.

(i) "Calls" means customers' telecommunications messages.

(j) "Central office" means the plant, facilities, and equipment, including, but not limited to, the switch, located inside a structure of a provider of telecommunications service that functions as an operating unit to establish connections between customer lines, between customer lines and trunks to other central offices within the same or other exchanges, and between customer lines and the facilities of other providers of telecommunications service.

(k) "Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity" (CPCN) means the Commission-granted authority to provide services, subject to terms and conditions established by the Commission in its decision granting the authority.

(l) "Channel" means a transmission path for telecommunications between two points. It may refer to a one-way path that permits the completion of traffic from the first point to the second point, or from the second point to the first point. Alternatively, it may refer to a two-way path that permits the completion of traffic in either direction. Generally a channel is the smallest subdivision of a transmission system by means of which a single type of communication service is provided.

(m) "Class of service" means a classification of a telecommunications service provided to a customer or group of customers, which denotes characteristics such as its nature of use (business or residence) or type of rate (flat rate, measured rate, or message rate).

(n) "Collocation" means the following:

(I) physical collocation occurs when one provider of telecommunications service owns interconnection facilities physically located within another provider of telecommunications service physical premises; or

(II) virtual collocation occurs when one telecommunications provider extends its facilities to a point of interconnection within a reasonably close proximity to, but not physically located within, another telecommunications provider's physical premises. In virtual collocation, the provider requesting collocation (lessee) may request the type of equipment to be used from another provider who owns the space (lesser). In such case, the lessee may own or may lease and maintain the equipment.

(o) "Commercial Mobile Radio Service" or "CMRS" means cellular or wireless service, personal communications service, paging service, radio common carrier service, radio mobile service, or enhanced specialized mobile radio service.

(p) "Common carrier" means a provider of telecommunications service that offers telecommunications services to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available to the public, on a non-discriminatory basis.

(q) "Community of interest" means an area consisting of one or more exchanges in which the general population has similar governmental, health, public safety, business, or educational interests.

(r) "Competitive local exchange carrier" (CLEC) means a provider of local exchange service that is not the incumbent local exchange carrier in an identified exchange area.

(s) "Customer" means, to the extent consistent with the context of each definition or other rule, a person who is currently receiving a jurisdictional telecommunications service.

(I) "Business customer" means a customer whose use of telecommunications service is primarily of a commercial, professional, institutional, or other occupational nature.

(II) "Residential customer" means a customer whose use of telecommunications service is primarily of a social or domestic nature.

(t) "Customer proprietary network information" has the same meaning as the meaning given to such term in 47 U.S.C. § 222(h)(1).

(u) "Customer trouble report" means any oral or written report from a customer or from a user of telecommunications services relating to a physical defect with or relating to difficulty or dissatisfaction with the operation of the provider's facilities. Any subsequent report received from the same customer or user of telecommunications services in the same day shall be counted as a separate report, unless it duplicates a previous report or unless it merely involves an inquiry concerning progress on a previous report.

(v) "Day" means a calendar day, consistent with the definition found in rule 1004(o).

(w) "Decibel" means the unit of measurement for the logarithmic ratio to the base ten of two power signals. The abbreviation dB is commonly used for the term decibel.

(x) "Deregulated telecommunications services" means services and products exempted from regulation pursuant to Title 40, Article 15, Part 4, C.R.S., or by the Commission in accordance with § 40-15-305(1), C.R.S.

(y) "Dial equipment minutes of use" (DEM) means the minutes of holding time of originating and terminating local switching equipment, as defined in 47 C.F.R., Part 36.

(z) "Dial tone or its equivalent" means:

(I) the signal placed on a local access line by the wireline provider signaling that the network is ready to receive a call from the subscriber; or

(II) the receipt by a wireless provider of the caller's dialed digits without a 'system busy' response.

(aa) "Effective competition area" (ECA) means a geographic area in which the Commission has determined that basic local exchange service is competitive and no longer eligible to receive High Cost Support Mechanism (HCSM) support pursuant to § 40-15-207, C.R.S.

(bb) "Electronic mail" (e-mail) means an electronic message that is transmitted between two or more computers or electronic terminals. Electronic mail includes electronic messages that are transmitted within or between computer networks.

(cc) "Eligible telecommunications carrier" (ETC) means a common carrier that is authorized by the Commission to receive federal universal service support as required by 47 U.S.C. 214(e)(2).

(dd) "Eligible Provider" (EP) means a provider who offers basic local exchange services and has been designated by the Commission as qualified to receive disbursements from the Colorado High Cost Support Mechanism.

(ee) "Emerging competitive telecommunications services" (Part III services) means services and products regulated by the Commission in accordance with Title 40, Article 15, Part III, C.R.S.

(ff) "End user" means, to the extent consistent with the context of each definition or other rule, a person, other than another provider of telecommunications service, who purchases a jurisdictional telecommunications service from a telecommunications provider.

(gg) "Enhanced 9-1-1" (E 9-1-1) means a telephone system which includes such features as Automatic Number Identification (ANI), Automatic Location Identification (ALI), and call routing features to facilitate public safety response as described within rules 2130 through 2159.

(hh) "Exchange" means the totality of the telecommunications plant, facilities, and equipment including plant, facilities and equipment located inside and outside of buildings, used in providing telecommunications service to customers located in a geographic area defined by a provider's tariff or terms of service document. An exchange may include more than one central office location or more than one wire center.

(ii) "Exchange area" means a geographic area established by the Commission for the purpose of establishing a local calling area that consists of one or more central offices together with associated facilities and plant located outside the central office, used in providing basic local exchange service.

(jj) "FCC" means the Federal Communications Commission.

(kk) "Governing body" means the board of county commissioners of a county; the city council or other governing body of a city, city and county, or town; or the board of directors of a special district.

(ll) "Held service order" means an application by a customer for basic local exchange service in a HCSM recipient's or ETC's service territory that the HCSM recipient or ETC is unable to provide within 30 days after the date of the customer's application, except when the customer requests a later service date. The application shall be notice to the HCSM recipient or ETC that the customer desires service. Oral or written requests shall both be considered applications.

(mm) "HCSM recipient" means a provider of basic service in a geographic support area that receives high cost support distributions pursuant to §§ 40-15-208 and 40-15-502(5), C.R.S.

(nn) "Incumbent local exchange carrier" (ILEC) means either:

(I) with respect to a geographic area, the LEC that, on the date of enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (February 8, 1996), provided telephone exchange service in such geographic area and that either:

(A) on such date of enactment, was deemed to be a member of the exchange carrier association pursuant to 47 C.F.R., 69.601(b) of the FCC's regulations; or

(B) is a person or entity that, on or after such date of enactment, became a successor or assign of a member described in subparagraph (I)(A) of this paragraph; or

(II) any comparable LEC that the Commission has, by rule or order, deemed to be an ILEC after finding that:

(A) such carrier occupies a position in the market for telephone exchange service within a geographic area that is comparable to the position occupied by a carrier described in subparagraph (I) of this paragraph;

(B) such carrier has substantially replaced an ILEC described in subparagraph (I) of this paragraph; and

(C) such treatment is consistent with the public interest, convenience, and necessity.

(oo) "Individual line service or its functional equivalent" means a grade of basic local exchange service that permits a user to have exclusive use of a dedicated message path for the length of the user's particular transmission.

(pp) "Information service" has the same meaning as set forth in 47 USC § 153.

(qq) "Interexchange provider" means a person who provides interexchange telecommunications services.

(rr) "Interexchange telecommunications service" means telephone service between exchange areas that is not included in basic local exchange service.

(ss) "Internet-Protocol- enabled service" or "IP-enabled service means a service, functionality, or application, other than voice-over-internet protocol, that uses internet protocol or a successor protocol and enables an end user to send or receive a voice, data, or video communication in internet protocol format or a successor format, utilizing a broadband connection at the end user's location.

(tt) "Jurisdictional service" means any service, subject to the authority of the Commission under the statutes of the State of Colorado included in Title 40, Article 15, Part 2, Part 3 or Part 5, C.R.S. Jurisdictional service also includes basic local exchange service in areas where HCSM support is provided, and interexchange service only for the purpose of Commission jurisdiction over unauthorized charges on a subscriber's bill, or complaints of changing a subscriber's service without his or her consent.

(uu) "Letter of Registration" (LOR) means Commission-granted authority to provide switched access services, subject to terms and conditions established in the Commission decision granting the authority.

(vv) "Local Access and Transport Area" (LATA) means a geographic area designated at the time of the 1984 divestiture of the American Telephone and Telegraph System. A LATA may encompass more than one contiguous local exchange area that serves common social, economic, or other purposes, even where such area transcends municipal or other local government boundaries.

(ww) "Local call" means any call originating and terminating within the same local calling area.

(xx) "Local calling area" (LCA) means the geographic area approved by the Commission in which customers may make calls without payment of a toll charge for each call. The local calling area may include exchange areas in addition to the serving exchange area.

(yy) "Local exchange carrier" (LEC) or "local exchange provider" means any person authorized by the Commission to provide basic local exchange service.

(zz) "Local exchange telecommunications service" and "local exchange service" means basic local exchange service and other such services identified in § 40-15-401, C.R.S., or defined by the Commission pursuant to § 40-15-502(2), C.R.S., and switched access as defined in §§ 40-15-102(28) and 40-15-301(2), C.R.S.; or any of the above singly or in combination.

(aaa) "Local usage" means the usage necessary to place and receive calls within a local calling area in which the customer is located.

(bbb) "Network element" means a facility or equipment used in the provision of a telecommunications service including features, functions, and capabilities that are provided by means of such a facility or equipment, including subscriber numbers, databases, signaling systems, including information sufficient for billing and collection of such elements, and including facilities used in the transmission, routing, or other provision of a telecommunications service.

(ccc) "Out-of-service trouble report" means a report by the customer of:

(I) no dial tone, inability to make calls, or inability to receive calls on the customer's local access line; or

(II) service quality deterioration to such an extent that the customer is incapable of sending or receiving a facsimile or data transmission at voicegrade, or technology equivalent, transmission levels using the local access line.

(ddd) "Part II service" means a service subject to regulation pursuant to Title 40, Article 15, Part 2, C.R.S.

(eee) "Private branch exchange" (PBX) means a private switchboard or switching system usually on the premises of customers such as campuses, large business offices, apartment buildings, or hotels, which, over a common group of lines from the central office, can receive calls, place outgoing calls, and interconnect intra-office extensions.

(fff) "Provider of last resort" (POLR) means a Commission-designated telecommunications provider that has the responsibility to offer basic local exchange service to all customers who request it within a geographic support area. All HCSM recipients are designated as POLRs in the geographic areas in which they receive HCSM support.

(ggg) "Public agency" means any city, city and county, town, county, municipal corporation, public district, or public authority located, in whole or in part, within this state that provides, or has the authority to provide, fire fighting, law enforcement, ambulance, emergency medical, or other emergency services.

(hhh) "Rate center" means a geographic point which is defined by specific vertical and horizontal coordinates on a map used by telecommunication companies to determine interexchange mileage when calculating toll charges.

(iii) "Rural telecommunications provider" or "rural provider" (RLEC) means a local exchange provider that meets one or more of the following conditions:

(I) provides common carrier service to any LEC study area, as defined by the Commission, that does not include either:

(A) any incorporated place of 10,000 inhabitants or more or any part thereof, based on the most recent available population statistics of the United States Bureau of the Census; or

(B) any territory, incorporated or unincorporated, included in an urbanized area as defined by the United States Bureau of the Census as of August 10, 1993;

(II) provides telephone exchange service, including exchange access to fewer than 50,000 access lines;

(III) provides telephone exchange service to any LEC study area, as defined by the Commission, with fewer than 100,000 access lines; or

(IV) has less than 15 percent of its access lines in communities of more than 50,000 inhabitants.

(jjj) "Service affecting trouble report" means a report by the customer of:

(I) impairment of the quality of the call such as noise, crosstalk, ringing, echo or diminished volume; or

(II) service quality deterioration such that the performance characteristics of the customer's local access line fall within the substandard range as defined in rule 2337.

(kkk) "Service territory" means a geographic area in which a provider of local exchange telecommunications services is authorized by the Commission to provide such services.

(lll) "Station" means a device and any other necessary equipment at the customer's premises that allows the customer to establish and continue communication.

(mmm) "Switched access" means the service or facilities provided by a local exchange provider to interexchange providers, which allows them to use the local exchange network or the public switched network to originate, terminate, or both originate and terminate interexchange telecommunications services.

(nnn) "Telecommunications relay service" means any telecommunications transmission service that allows a person who has a hearing or speech disability to engage in communication by wire or radio with a hearing individual in a manner that is functionally equivalent to the ability of an individual who does not have a hearing or speech disability. Such term includes any service that enables two-way communication between a person who uses a telecommunications device or other nonvoice terminal device and an individual who does not use such a device.

(ooo) "Telecommunications service" and "telecommunications" have the same meanings as set forth in 47 U.S.C. § 153(53), 47 U.S.C. § 153(50) and § 40-15-102(29), C.R.S.

(ppp) "Toll service" (interexchange telecommunications service) means a type of telecommunications service, commonly known as long-distance service that is provided on an intrastate basis between LATAs and within LATAs and that:

(I) is not included as part of basic local exchange service;

(II) originates and terminates in different local calling areas; and

(III) was or is traditionally billed to the customer separately from basic local exchange service.

(qqq) "Unbundling" means the disaggregation of facilities and functions into network products or services so that they can be separately offered to other providers of telecommunications service in a manner that allows requesting providers of telecommunications service to combine such elements in order to provide telecommunications services.

(rrr) "Universal service", "Universal basic service", or "Universal basic local exchange service" means the availability of basic local exchange service to all citizens of Colorado at affordable rates.

(sss) "Urban rate floor" means the basic local exchange service rate required to be charged in order to prevent a reduction in Federal high cost support.

(ttt) "USOA" means Uniform System of Accounts.

(uuu) "Voicegrade access" to the public switched network means the functionality than enables a user of telecommunications services to transmit voice communications within the frequency range of approximately 300 Hertz and 3,000 Hertz, for a bandwidth of approximately 2,700 Hertz. It also includes signaling the network that: the caller wishes to place a call; there is an incoming call; and the called party is ready to receive voice communications.

(vvv) "Voice-over-internet protocol" or VoIP" means a service that:

(I) enables real-time, two-way voice communications originating from or terminating at a user's in internet protocol or a successor protocol;

(II) utilizes a broadband connection from the user's location; and

(III) permits a user to generally receive calls that originate on the public switched network and to terminate calls to the public switched telephone network.

(www) "Wire center" means the structure that houses the equipment used for providing telecommunications services and that terminates outside cable plant and other facilities for a designated serving area.

(xxx) "Wire center serving area" means the geographic area of an exchange area served by a single wire center.

4 CCR 723-2-2001

39 CR 21, November 10, 2016, effective 12/1/2016

40 CR 15, August 10, 2017, effective 9/1/2017

41 CR 03, February 10, 2018, effective 3/2/2018

42 CR 02, January 25, 2019, effective 2/14/2019

42 CR 07, April 10, 2019, effective 4/30/2019

43 CR 02, January 25, 2020, effective 2/14/2020

43 CR 17, September 10, 2020, effective 8/17/2020

44 CR 17, September 10, 2021, effective 8/11/2021

44 CR 18, September 25, 2021, effective 10/15/2021

45 CR 03, February 10, 2022, effective 12/29/2021

45 CR 01, January 10, 2022, effective 1/30/2022

46 CR 05, March 10, 2023, effective 3/30/2023

47 CR 19, October 10, 2024, effective 10/30/2024