Section 731.105  Definitions

"Act" means the Public Utilities Act [220 ILCS 5].

"Billing" means the processes and systems used to prepare and provide bills to carriers for service ordered and rendered by the providing carrier. "Billing" also includes the functions required to investigate and dispute bills by the carrier receiving the bill.

"Bona fide request" means a telecommunications carrier's written request to another telecommunications carrier to provide a wholesale service.

"Business day" means Monday through Friday, inclusive, excluding weekends and holidays observed and published by the providing carrier.

"Carrier" means a telecommunications carrier as defined in Section 13-202 of the Act [220 ILCS 5/13-202].

"Carrier to carrier wholesale service quality" means the level of quality of telecommunications service, measured pursuant to this Part, that one telecommunications carrier sells or provides to another telecommunications carrier for the latter carrier's use in providing a telecommunications service to end users.

"Change management" means the series of processes and procedures negotiated between two or more carriers that detail the guidelines by which operation support system (OSS) changes are requested and made and for which notice is provided to the users of the OSS.

"Collocation" means the placement by one carrier of its network equipment at the premises of another carrier.

"Commission" means the Illinois Commerce Commission.

"Customer service record" or "CSR" means account information that a providing carrier maintains about an end user and includes, but is not limited to, the billing name, service address, and billing address of the end user. A CSR shall not be requested until after the requesting carrier has received authorization from the end user customer.

"Firm order confirmation" or "FOC" means the document or electronic record by which a provisioning carrier notifies a requesting carrier that the service order has been received and what due date has been assigned.

"Good cause" is evidence or law presented in a Commission proceeding that establishes a party's entitlement to the relief at issue or requested.

"High frequency portion of the loop" or "HFPL" means the frequency range above the voiceband on a copper loop facility that is being used to carry analog circuit-switched voiceband transmissions. Access to the HFPL is commonly called line sharing or line splitting.

"Interconnection trunks" means network facilities used to interconnect two switches of different carriers.

"Local exchange carrier" or "LEC" means a carrier certificated by the Commission to provide intraexchange service within the same market service area (see Section 13-208 of the Act [220 ILCS 5/13-208]).

"Local loop" means a transmission facility between a distribution frame (or its equivalent) in a carrier's central office and the loop demarcation point at an end user customer premises. Local loop includes HFPL.

"Loss notification" means the notice or notification given to a requesting carrier that uses the provisioning carrier's facilities to offer service to its end user when the end user of the service decides to switch its service to the provisioning carrier or to another carrier. This notification is sent from the provisioning carrier to the losing carrier to notify the losing carrier that it has lost the end user customer. Typically, this notification is the mechanism through which the losing carrier obtains information to know that it should cease billing the end user for a given service that one carrier sells or provides to another carrier, as a component of, or for the provision of, telecommunications service to end users.

"Maintenance and repair" means the actions taken or functions used to create trouble reports, view or determine trouble report status and trouble report history, receive proactive status on trouble reports, and clear and close trouble reports.

"Measure" means the specific component or attribute of a wholesale service that is being measured to assess service quality pursuant to an adopted or agreed upon standard. Measures are often based on the pre-ordering, ordering, provisioning, maintenance and repair, or billing functions used to deliver the service.

"Operation support systems" or "OSS" means the various systems and business processes used by a carrier to conduct business with its customers. Typically, OSS covers pre-ordering, ordering, provisioning, maintenance and repair, and billing functions.

"Ordering" means the sequence of steps involved in placing an order with a carrier.

"Preexisting plan" means:

A plan implemented by or for a carrier prior to September 1, 2004 that contains one or more of the components required for a wholesale service quality plan as set forth in Section 731.305 (General Plan Requirements), the terms and provisions of which have been specifically reviewed and approved by the Commission within the previous three years in a docketed proceeding, other than a proceeding that reviewed a negotiated or arbitrated agreement pursuant to section 252 of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 (47 USC 252); or

If the terms and conditions of a preexisting plan have not been specifically reviewed and approved by the Commission within the previous three years in a docketed proceeding other than a proceeding that reviewed a negotiated or arbitrated agreement pursuant to section 252 of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, then the most recent preexisting plan implemented by that carrier pursuant to a Commission order or, if no preexisting plan was implemented by that carrier pursuant to a Commission order, the most recent preexisting plan implemented by that carrier on a voluntary basis.

"Pre-ordering" means the exchange of specific information (usually an inquiry and response process) between two carriers for the purpose of gathering appropriate information before submitting a request or order.

"Provision" or "provisioning" means to supply, or the supplying of, telecommunications service to a user. With respect to OSS, "provisioning" also means the functions used to manage and monitor an order during the period between the order placement and order completion.

"Provisioning carrier" means the carrier provisioning, or committing or offering to provision, a wholesale service to another carrier.

"Public interest" has the same meaning as in 47 U.S.C. 252(e).

"Reject notice" means a method by which a carrier notifies a requesting carrier that a service request or order is rejected.

"Remedy" means a payment or credit from one carrier to another carrier or the State of Illinois for failure to provide wholesale service at the standard prescribed in Section 731.320 for Level 1 carriers, Section 731.615 for Level 2 carriers, and Section 731.815 for Level 4 carriers.

"Requesting carrier" means the carrier requesting, ordering, or receiving a wholesale service from another carrier.

"Resold local service" means the sale, for purposes of resale, of a complete telecommunications path (i.e., switch port and loop) and associated support (e.g., 9-1-1) by a facilities-based carrier to another carrier.

"Rural exemption" means the exemption granted to rural telephone companies under section 251(f) of the federal Telecommunications Act (47 USC 251(f)).

"Standard" means the rate or level at which a measure is to be provided.

"Telecommunications Act" means the federal Telecommunications Act of 1934, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

"Trouble report" has the same meaning as in 83 Ill. Adm. Code 730.

"Unbundled local loop" means the physical connection from the end user's premises to the carrier's point of presence, excluding switching or ports, provided by one carrier to another carrier.

"Unbundled loop return" means the release for reuse by a carrier of an unbundled local loop to a different carrier when the subscriber, whose local telephone service resides on the unbundled loop, authorizes a change in its local telephone service to a different carrier.

"Wholesale out of service" means a situation in which the wholesale service can not be used for its intended function. "Out of service" does not include a situation in which the essential elements of a wholesale service are still operational but there are extra features that are not working (e.g., for dial tone wholesale service a line is not out of service if the call blocking feature is not working but the line has dial tone and can be used to receive and place calls; for non-dial tone wholesale service a line is out of service when the circuit is incapable of transporting voice and/or data).

"Wholesale service" means any telecommunications service subject to the Commission's jurisdiction that one carrier sells or provides to another carrier, as a component of, or for the provision of, telecommunications service to end users, including, but not limited to, any wholesale service that is subject to wholesale service quality standards pursuant to this Part and shall include loss notification, customer service records and unbundled loop returns.

"Wholesale service emergency situation" means a single event that causes an interruption of service or installations affecting wholesale service provided by a carrier. The emergency situation shall begin with the first carrier whose wholesale service is interrupted by the single event and shall end with the restoration or installation of the service of all affected carriers. The term "single event" shall include:

A declaration made by the applicable State or federal governmental agency that the area served by the local exchange carrier is either a State or federal disaster area; or an act of third parties, including acts of terrorism, vandalism, riot, civil unrest, or war, or acts of parties that are not agents, employees or contractors of the local exchange carrier; or a severe storm, tornado, earthquake, flood or fire, including any severe storm, tornado, earthquake, flood or fire that prevents the local exchange carrier from restoring service due to impassable roads, downed power lines, or the closing off of affected areas by public safety officials.

The term "wholesale service emergency situation" shall not include:

a single event caused by high temperature conditions alone; or a single event caused, or exacerbated in scope and duration, by acts or omissions of the local exchange carrier, its agents, employees or contractors or by the condition of facilities, equipment, or premises owned or operated by the local exchange carrier who is claiming that the interruption of service is due to an emergency situation; or any service interruption that occurs during a single event listed above, but is not caused by those single events; or a single event that the local exchange carrier who is claiming that the interruption of service is due to an emergency situation could have reasonably foreseen and taken precautions to prevent; provided, however, that in no event shall such carrier be required to undertake precautions that are technically infeasible or economically prohibitive.

This Part shall be construed as being content neutral as to whether a strike or other work stoppage is a "wholesale service emergency situation". In the event of a strike or other work stoppage, the local exchange carrier's obligations to provide remedies under this Part shall, in the absence of a decision by a court of competent jurisdiction, be determined by the Commission on a case-by-case basis based upon the individual factual circumstances of each strike or other work stoppage. In making such a determination, and notwithstanding the definition of "wholesale service emergency situation", the Commission shall not presume that a strike or other work stoppage is an act of an employee or of the local exchange carrier. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this definition, a carrier shall not treat a strike or other work stoppage as a wholesale service emergency situation for reporting purposes unless and until a determination is made that such strike or other work stoppage constitutes a wholesale service emergency situation.

"Wholesale service quality plan" or "plan" means a plan filed or approved pursuant to Subpart B, C, D, or E of this Part.

"Wholesale special access" means wholesale service subject to the Commission's jurisdiction utilizing a dedicated non-switched transmission path used for carrier-to-carrier service from the customer's NID (Network Interface Device) or POI (Point Of Interface) to the carrier's POI (Point Of Interface) to one or more of the following: the provisioning carrier's POI; another NID or POI on the requesting carrier's network; or another carrier's network. A non-switched transmission path may include, but is not limited to, DS1, DS3, and OCn facilities as well as links for SS7 signaling, database queries, and SONET ring access.  "Wholesale special access" includes wholesale special access service subject to the Commission's jurisdiction provided to a wireless carrier or to another telecommunication carrier.