S.D. Admin. R. 20:10:28:01

Current through Register Vol. 51, page 67, December 16, 2024

Section 20:10:28:01 - Definitions

Terms defined in SDCL 49-31-1 have the same meaning when used in this chapter. In addition, terms used in this chapter mean:

(1) "Access line," a communications facility extending from a customer's premises to a serving central office comprising a subscriber line and, if necessary, a trunk facility;

(2) "Book cost," the cost of property as recorded on the books of a company;

(3) "Cable fill factor," the ratio of cable conductor or cable pair miles in use to total cable conductor or cable pair miles available in the plant; for example, the ratio of revenue-producing cable pair miles in use to total cable pair miles in plant;

(4) "Category," a grouping of items of property or expense to facilitate the apportionment of their costs among the operations and to which, ordinarily, a common measure of use is applicable;

(5) "Central office," in a telecommunications system which provides service to the general public, a switching system with the necessary equipment and operations arrangements for terminating and interconnecting subscriber lines and trunks or trunks only;

(6) "Channel," an electrical path suitable for the transmission of communications between two or more points, ordinarily between two or more stations or between channel terminations in a telecommunications company's central offices;

(7) "Circuit," a fully operative communications path established in the normal circuit layout and currently used for message, wide area telephone service access, or private line services;

(8) "Circuit mileage or miles," the route miles of revenue-producing circuits in service, determined by measuring the length, in miles, of the actual path followed by the transmission medium;

(9) "Class A company," a telecommunications company with annual revenues from regulated telecommunications operations of $100,000,000 or more;

(10) "Class B company," a telecommunications company with annual revenues from regulated telecommunications operations of less than $100,000,000;

(11) "Common channel network signaling," channels between switching offices used to transmit signaling information independent of the subscribers' communication paths or transmission channels;

(12) "Complement of cable," a group of conductors of the same general type, such as quadded or paired, within a single cable sheath;

(13) "Complex," all groups of operator positions, wherever located, associated with either the same call distribution or stored program control unit, or both;

(14) "Concentration equipment," central office equipment which is connected to the serving central office line equipment and whose function is to concentrate traffic from subscriber lines onto a lesser number of circuits between the remotely located concentration equipment and the serving central office concentration equipment;

(15) "Connection-minute," the product of the number of messages and the average minutes of connection for each message;

(16) "Conversation-minute," the product of the number of messages and the average minutes of conversation for each message;

(17) "Conversation-minute-miles," the product of the number of messages, the average minutes of conversation for each message, and the average route miles of circuits involved;

(18) "Cost," the price of property owned by a telecommunications company whose property is to be apportioned among its operations;

(19) "Current billing," the combined amount of charges billed, excluding arrears;

(20) "Customer-dialed charge traffic," traffic which is both handled to completion through pulses generated by the customer and for which either a message unit charge, bulk charge, or message toll charge is made, except for that traffic recorded by means of message registers;

(21) "Customer premises equipment," items of telecommunications terminal equipment in account 2310, such as telephone instruments, data sets, dialers, and other supplemental equipment, private branch exchanges which are provided by common carriers and located on customer premises, and inventory included in these accounts to be used for such purposes, but not similar items of equipment located on telecommunications company premises and used by the company in the normal course of business, as well as over voltage protection equipment, customer premises wiring, coin-operated public or pay telephones, multiplexing equipment to deliver multiple channels to the customer, mobile radio equipment, and transmit earth stations;

(22) "Customer premises wire," the segment of wiring from the customer's side of the protector to the customer premises equipment;

(23) "Data processing equipment," office equipment which uses punched cards, punched tape, magnetic tape, or other comparable storage media as an operating vehicle for recording and processing information, including machines for transcribing raw data onto punched cards but not including key-operated and manually or electrically driven adding, calculating, bookkeeping, or billing machines; typewriters; or similar equipment;

(24) "Dial switching equipment," switching equipment actuated by electrical impulses generated by a dial or key pulsing arrangement;

(25) "Equal access costs," only the initial incremental presubscription costs and initial incremental expenditures for hardware and software related directly to the provision of equal access which would not be required to upgrade the switching capabilities of the office involved without the provision of equal access;

(26) "Equivalent gauge," a standard cross-section of cable conductors for use in equating the metallic content of cable conductors of all gauges to a common base;

(27) "Equivalent miles of 104 wire," the basic units employed in the allocation of pole line costs for determining the relative use made of poles by aerial cables and by aerial wire conductors of various sizes, reflecting the relative loads of cable and wire carried on poles;

(28) "Equivalent pair miles," the product of sheath miles and the number of equivalent gauge pairs of conductors in a cable;

(29) "Equivalent sheath miles," the product of the length of a section of cable in sheath miles, and the ratio of the metallic content applicable to a particular group of conductors in the cable (conductors assigned to a category) to the metallic content of all conductors in the cable;

(30) "Exchange transmission equipment," a combination of exchange cable and wire facilities, exchange central office circuit equipment, including associated land and buildings, and information origination/termination equipment which forms a complete channel;

(31) "Holding time," the time in which an item of telecommunications plant is in actual use either by a customer or an operator;

(32) "Host central office," an electronic analog or digital base switching unit containing the central call processing functions which service the host office and its remote locations;

(33) "Information origination/termination equipment," equipment used to input into or receive output from the telecommunications network;

(34) "Interexchange channel," a circuit which is included in the interexchange transmission equipment;

(35) "Interexchange transmission equipment," the combination of interexchange cable and wire facilities, interexchange circuit equipment, and associated land and buildings;

(36) "Interlocal trunk," a circuit between two local central office units, either manual or dial, used for either exchange or toll traffic, or both;

(37) "Intertoll circuits," circuits between toll centers and circuits between a toll center and a tandem system in a different toll center area;

(38) "Local channel," the portion of a private line circuit which is included in the exchange transmission plant, but ordinarily not information origination/termination equipment;

(39) "Local office," a central office serving primarily as a place of termination for subscriber lines and for providing telecommunications service to the subscribers on those lines;

(40) "Long haul toll traffic," a general term applied to message toll traffic between distant points, ordinarily more than 20 to 50 miles apart;

(41) "Loop," a pair of wires, or its equivalent, between a customer's station and the central office from which the station is served;

(42) "Message," a completed call; a communication in which a conversation or exchange of information took place between the calling and called parties;

(43) "Message service or message toll service," switched service furnished to the general public, as distinguished from private line service, including exchange switched services and all switched services provided by interexchange carriers and completed by a local telecommunications company's access services, except as otherwise provided in this chapter;

(44) "Message units," unit of measurement used for charging for measured message telephone exchange traffic within a specified area;

(45) "Minutes-of-use," a unit of measurement expressed as either holding time or conversation time;

(46) "Minutes-of-use miles," the product of the number of minutes-of-use and the average route miles of circuits involved;

(47) "Operations," the term denoting the general classifications of intrastate services rendered to the public for which separate tariffs are filed, namely toll and other;

(48) "Operator system," a stored program electronic system associated with one or more toll switching systems which provides centralized traffic service position functions for several local offices at one location;

(49) "Operator trunks," a general term, ordinarily applied to trunks between manually operated switchboard positions and local dial central offices in the same wire center;

(50) "Private line service," a service for communications between specified locations for a continuous period or for regularly recurring periods at stated hours;

(51) "Remote access line," an access line between a subscriber's premises in one toll rate center and a serving central office located in a different toll rate center;

(52) "Remote line location," a remotely located subscriber line access unit which is normally dependent upon the central processor of the host office for call processing functions;

(53) "Remote trunk arrangement," arrangement that permits the extension of traffic service position system functions to remote locations;

(54) "Reservation" or "reserved," that amount or quantity of property kept or set apart for a specific use;

(55) "Separations," the process by which a telecommunications company's property costs, revenues, expenses, taxes, and reserves are apportioned among its operations;

(56) "Service observing unit," a unit of work measurement which is used as the common denominator to express the relative time required for handling the various work functions at service observing boards;

(57) "Sheath miles," the actual length of cable in route miles;

(58) "Short haul toll traffic," a general term applied to messages toll traffic between nearby points, ordinarily less than 20 to 50 miles apart;

(59) "Special services," all services other than message telephones, such as private line services;

(60) "Station-to-station basis," the term applied to the basis of toll rate making which contemplates that the message toll service charge covers the use made of all facilities between the originating station and the terminating station, including the stations, and the services rendered in connection with their use;

(61) "Subscriber line" or "exchange line," a communication channel between a telephone station, or private branch exchange and the central office which serves it;

(62) "Subtributary office," a class of tributary office which does not have direct access to its toll center, but which is connected to its toll center office by means of circuits which are switched through to the toll center at another tributary office;

(63) "Tandem area," the general area served by the local offices having direct trunks or from the tandem office, consisting of one or more communities or including only a portion of a relatively large city;

(64) "Tandem circuit or trunk," a general classification of circuits or trunks between a tandem central office unit and any other central office or switchboard;

(65) "Tandem connection," a call switched at a tandem office;

(66) "Tandem office," a central office unit used primarily as an intermediate switching point for traffic between local central offices within the tandem area;

(67) "Toll," a combination of all interexchange traffic including both switched access and retail long distance services sold to end users;

(68) "Toll center," an office or group of offices within a city which generally handles the originating and incoming toll traffic for that city to or from other toll center areas and which handles through switched traffic;

(69) "Toll center area," the area served by a toll center, including the toll center city and the communities served by tributaries of the toll center;

(70) "Toll center toll office," a toll office, as contrasted to a local office, in a toll center city;

(71) "Toll circuit," a general term applied to interexchange trunks used primarily for toll traffic;

(72) "Toll connecting trunk," a general classification of trunks carrying toll traffic and ordinarily extending between a local office and a toll office, except trunks classified as tributary circuits, including toll switching trunks, recording trunks, and recording-completing trunks;

(73) "Toll office," a central office used primarily for supervising and switching toll traffic;

(74) "Traffic service position system (TSPS) complex," all groups of operator positions, wherever located, associated with the same TSPS stored program control unit;

(75) "Tributary circuit," a circuit between a tributary office and a toll switchboard or intertoll dialing equipment in a toll center city;

(76) "Tributary office," a local office which is located outside the exchange in which a toll center is located, which has a different rate center from its toll center and which usually tickets and times only a part of its originating toll traffic, but which may ticket or time all or none of such traffic;

(77) "Trunks," circuits between switchboards or other switching equipment, as distinguished from circuits which extend between central office switching equipment and information origination/termination equipment;

(78) "Weighted standard work second," a measurement of traffic operating work which is used to express the relative time required to handle the various kinds of calls or work functions, which is weighted to reflect appropriate degrees of waiting-to-serve time;

(79) "Wide area telephone service (WATS)," a toll service offering for customer dial-type telecommunications between a given customer station and stations within specified geographic rate areas employing a single access line between the customer location and the serving central office. Each access line may be arranged for either outward, OUT-WATS, or inward, IN-WATS, service or both;

(80) "Wideband channel," a communication channel of a band-width equivalent to 12 or more voice-grade channels;

(81) "Working loop," a revenue-producing pair of wires, or its equivalent, between a customer's station and the central office from which the station is served.

S.D. Admin. R. 20:10:28:01

19 SDR 111, effective 1/31/1993.

General Authority: SDCL 49-1-11, 49-31-5, 49-31-18.

Law Implemented: SDCL 49-31-18.

Glossary, 47 C.F.R. § 36 (1991).