Appendix to Part 36 - Glossary
47:2.0.1.1.8.7.121.1.3 :
Appendix to Part 36 - Glossary
The descriptions of terms in this glossary are broad and have
been prepared to assist in understanding the use of such terms in
the separation procedures. Terms which are defined in the text of
this part are not included in this glossary.
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, e.g., a WATS access line.
Book Cost
The cost of property as recorded on the books of a company.
Cable Fill Factor
The ratio of cable conductor or cable pair kilometers in use to
total cable conductor or cable pair kilometers available in the
plant, e.g., the ratio of revenue producing cable pair kilometers
in use to total cable pair kilometers in plant.
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.
Central Office
A switching unit, in a telephone system which provides service
to the general public, having the necessary equipment and
operations arrangements for terminating and interconnecting
subscriber lines and trunks or trunks only. There may be more than
one central office in a building.
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
Telecommunication Company central offices. A channel may be
furnished by wire, fiberoptics, radio or a combination thereof.
Circuit
A fully operative communications path established in the normal
circuit layout and currently used for message, WATS access, or
private line services.
Circuit Kilometers
The route kilometers or revenue producing circuits in service,
determined by measuring the length in terms of kilometers, of the
actual path followed by the transmission medium.
Common Channel Network Signaling
Channels between switching offices used to transmit signaling
information independent of the subscribers' communication paths or
transmission channels.
Complement (of cable)
A group of conductors of the same general type (e.g., quadded,
paired) within a single cable sheath.
Complex
All groups of operator positions, wherever located, associated
with the same call distribution and/or stored program control
unit.
Concentration Equipment
Central office equipment 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. This concentration
equipment is connected to the serving central office line
equipment.
Connection - Minute
The product of (a) the number of messages and, (b) the average
minutes of connection per message.
Conversation - Minute
The product of (a) the number of messages and, (b) the average
minutes of conversation per message.
Conversation - Minute - Kilometers
The product of (a) the number of messages, (b) the average
minutes of conversation per message and (c) the average route
kilometers of circuits involved.
Cost
The cost of property owned by the Telephone Company whose
property is to be apportioned among the operations. This term
applies either to property costs recorded on the books of the
company or property costs determined by other evaluation
methods.
Current Billing
The combined amount of charges billed, excluding arrears.
Customer Dialed Charge Traffic
Traffic which is both (a) handled to completion through pulses
generated by the customer and (b) for which either a message unit
change, bulk charge or message toll charge is except for that
traffic recorded by means of message registers.
Customer Premises Equipment
Items of telecommunications terminal equipment in Accounts 2310
referred to as CPE in § 64.702 of the Federal Communication
Commission's Rules adopted in the Second Computer Inquiry
such as telephone instruments, data sets, dialers and other
supplemental equipment, and PBX's which are provided by common
carriers and located on customer premises and inventory included in
these accounts to be used for such purposes. Excluded from this
classification are similar items of equipment located on telephone
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.
Customer Premises Wire
The segment of wiring from the customer's side of the protector
to the customer premises equipment.
DSA Board
A local dial office switchboard at which are handled assistance
calls, intercepted calls and calls from miscellaneous lines and
trunks. It may also be employed for handling certain toll
calls.
DSB Board
A switchboard of a dial system for completing incoming calls
received from manual offices.
Data Processing Equipment
Office equipment such as that using punched cards, punched tape,
magnetic or other comparable storage media as an operating vehicle
for recording and processing information. Includes machines for
transcribing raw data into punched cards, etc., but does not
include such items as key-operated, manually or electrically driven
adding, calculating, bookkeeping or billing machines, typewriters
or similar equipment.
Dial Switching Equipment
Switching equipment actuated by electrical impulses generated by
a dial or key pulsing arrangement.
Equal Access Costs
Include only 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 absent the provisions of equal access.
Equivalent Gauge
A standard cross section of cable conductors for use in equating
the metallic content of cable conductors of all gauge to a common
base.
Equivalent Kilometers of 104 Wire
The basic units employed in the allocation of pole lines costs
for determining the relative use made of poles by aerial cables and
by aerial wire conductors of various sizes. This unit reflects the
relative loads of such cable and wire carried on poles.
Equivalent Pair Kilometers
The product of sheath Kilometers and the number of equivalent
gauge pairs of conductors in a cable.
Equivalent Sheath Kilometers
The product of (a) the length of a section of cable in
kilometers (sheath kilometers) and (b) the ratio of the metallic
content applicable to a particular group of conductors in the cable
(e.g., conductors assigned to a category) to the metallic content
of all conductors in the cable.
Exchange Transmission Plant
This is a combination of (a) exchange cable and wire facilities
(b) exchange central office circuit equipment, including associated
land and buildings and (c) information origination/termination
equipment which forms a complete channel.
Holding Time
The time in which an item of telephone plant is in actual use
either by a customer or an operator. For example, on a completed
telephone call, holding time includes conversation time as well as
other time in use. At local dial offices any measured minutes which
result from other than customer attempts to place calls (as
evidenced by the dialing of at least one digit) are not treated as
holding time.
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.
Information Origination/Termination Equipment
Equipment used to input into or receive output from the
telecommunications network.
Interexchange Channel
A circuit which is included in the interexchange transmission
equipment.
Interexchange Transmission Equipment
The combination of (a) interexchange cable and wire facilities,
(b) interexchange circuit equipment and, (c) associated land and
buildings.
Interlocal Trunk
A circuit between two local central office units, either manual
or dial. Interlocal trunks may be used for either exchange or toll
traffic or both.
Intertoll Circuits
Circuits between toll centers and circuits between a toll center
and a tandem system in a different toll center area.
Local Channel
The portion of a private line circuit which is included in the
exchange transmission plant. However, common usage of this term
usually excludes information origination/termination equipment.
Local Office
A central office serving primarily as a place of termination for
subscriber lines and for providing telephone service to the
subscribers on these lines.
Loop
A pair of wires, or its equivalent, between a customer's station
and the central office from which the station is served.
Message
A completed call, i.e., a communication in which a conversation
or exchange of information took place between the calling and
called parties.
Message Service or Message Toll Service
Switched service furnished to the general public (as
distinguished from private line service). Except as otherwise
provided, this includes exchange switched services and all switched
services provided by interexchange carriers and completed by a
local telephone company's access services, e.g., MTS, WATS,
Execunet, open-end FX and CCSA/ONALs.
Message Units
Unit of measurement used for charging for measured message
telephone exchange traffic within a specified area.
Metropolitan Service Area
The area around and including a relatively large city and in
which substantially all of the message telephone traffic between
the city and the suburban points within the area is classified as
exchange in one or both directions.
Minutes-of-Use
A unit of measurement expressed as either holding time or
conversation time.
Minutes-of-Use-Kilometers
The product of (a) the number of minutes-of-use and (b) the
average route kilometers of circuits involved.
Multi-Center Exchange
An exchange area in which are located two or more local central
office buildings or wire centers.
Operations
The term denoting the general classifications of services
rendered to the public for which separate tariffs are filed, namely
exchange, state toll and interstate toll.
Operator Trunks
A general term, ordinarily applied to trunks between manually
operated switchboard positions and local dial central offices in
the same wire center.
Private Line Service
A service for communications between specified locations for a
continuous period or for regularly recurring periods at stated
hours.
Remote Access Line
An access line (e.g., for WATS service) between a subscriber's
premises in one toll rate center and a serving central office
located in a different toll rate center.
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.
Remote Trunk Arrangement (RTA)
Arrangement that permits the extension of TSPS functions to
remote locations.
Reservation
That amount or quantity of property kept or set apart for a
specific use.
Reserved
Kept or set apart for a specific use.
Separations
The process by which telecommunication property costs, revenues,
expenses, taxes and reserves are apportioned among the
operations.
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.
Sheath Kilometers
The actual length of cable in route kilometers.
Special Services
All services other than message telephones, e.g., private line
services.
Station-to-Station Basis
The term applied to the basis of toll rate making which
contemplates that the message toll service charge (telephone)
covers the use made of all facilities between the originating
station and the terminating station, including the stations, and
the services rendered in connection therewith.
Study Area
Study area boundaries shall be frozen as they are on November
15, 1984.
Subscriber Line or Exchange Line
A communication channel between a telephone station or PBX
station and the central office which serves it.
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.
Tandem Area
The general areas served by the local offices having direct
trunks to or from the tandem office. This area may consist of one
or more communities or may include only a portion of a relatively
large city.
Tandem Circuit or Trunk
A general classification of circuits or trunks between a tandem
central office unit and any other central office or
switchboard.
Tandem Connection
A call switched at a tandem office.
Tandem Office
A central office unit used primarily as an intermediate
switching point for traffic between local central offices within
the tandem area. Where qualified by a modifying expression, or
other explanation, this term may be applied to an office employed
for both the interconnection of local central offices within the
tandem area and for the interconnection of these local offices with
other central offices, e.g., long haul tandem office.
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. The toll center normally handles the inward toll traffic
for its tributary exchanges and, in general, either handles the
outward traffic originating at its tributaries or serves as the
outlet to interexchange circuits for outward traffic ticketed and
timed at its tributaries. Toll centers are listed as such in the
Toll Rate and Route Guide.
Toll Center Area
The areas served by a toll center, including the toll center
city and the communities served by tributaries of the toll
center.
Toll Center Toll Office
A toll office (as contrasted to a local office) in a toll center
city.
Toll Circuit
A general term applied to interexchange trunks used primarily
for toll traffic.
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. Examples of toll
connecting trunks include toll switching trunks, recording trunks
and recording-completing trunks.
Toll Office
A central office used primarily for supervising and switching
toll traffic.
Traffic Over First Routes
A term applied to the routing of traffic and denoting routing
via principal route for traffic between any two points as
distinguished from alternate routes for such traffic.
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.
Tributary Circuit
A circuit between a tributary office and a toll switchboard or
intertoll dialing equipment in a toll center city.
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. The toll center handles all outward traffic not
ticketed and timed at the tributary and normally switches all
inward toll traffic from outside the tributary's toll center to the
tributary. Tributary offices are indicated as such in the Toll Rate
and Route Guide.
Trunks
Circuit between switchboards or other switching equipment, as
distinguished from circuits which extend between central office
switching equipment and information origination/termination
equipment.
TSPS Complex
All groups of operator positions, wherever located, associated
with the same TSPS stored program control units.
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, and which is weighted to reflect appropriate
degrees of waiting to serve time.
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.
Wideband Channel
A communication channel of a bandwidth equivalent to twelve or
more voice grade channels.
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.
[71 FR 65747, Nov. 9, 2006]