When used in this Part, the listed terms will have the definitions
given in this Section.
"Act" means the Public Utilities Act [220 ILCS 5 ].
"Alternative telephone service" means, except where technically
impracticable, a wireless telephone capable of making local calls, and may also
include, but is not limited to, call forwarding, voice mail, or paging services.
[220
ILCS 5/13-712(b)(1) ]
"Appointment" means an arrangement made by a telecommunications
carrier to meet a customer within an agreed 4 hour window.
"Basic local exchange service" means residential and business lines
used for local exchange telecommunications service as defined in Section 13-204 of
the Act, excluding: services that employ advanced telecommunications capability as
defined insection706(c)(1) of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996; vertical
services; company official lines; and records work only. [220
ILCS 5/13-712(b)(2) ]
"Basic local exchange service installation" means the installation
of basic local exchange service whereby the physical connecting and diagnostic
testing of a local loop results in the provisioning of dial tone to the requesting
customer's network interface device. It includes move orders and orders for
additional lines.
"Commission" means the Illinois Commerce Commission.
"Customer" means any person, building owner, firm, partnership,
corporation, municipality, cooperative, organization, governmental agency, etc.,
provided with local exchange carrier telecommunications services as defined in
Section 13-204 of the Act. "Customer" may also be referred to as "end user".
"Emergency situation" means a single event that causes an
interruption of service or installations affecting end users of a local exchange
carrier. The emergency situation shall begin with the first end user whose service
is interrupted by the single event and shall end with the restoration or
installation of the service of all affected end users. 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 "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; or
any service interruption that occurs during a single event listed
above, but are not caused by those single events; or
a single event that the local exchange carrier could have reasonably
foreseen and taken precaution to prevent; provided, however, that in no event shall
a local exchange 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 an "emergency situation". In the event of a
strike or other work stoppage, the local exchange carrier's obligation to pay
customer credits 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 "emergency situation"
above, the Commission shall not presume that a strike or other work stoppage is an
act of an employee or of the local exchange carrier.
"Link Up" means the Link Up Assistance program defined and
established at
47CFR54.411
et seq., as amended. [220
ILCS 5/13-712(b)(3) ]
"Monthly recurring charge" means monthly access/usage rate, end user
common line charge, and tariffed vertical services.
"Out of service" means that, after reporting an out of service
condition to the local exchange carrier, the customer still has no dial tone, cannot
be called, or cannot call out. This defined term excludes call blocking or any other
intentional alteration to an end user's calling or call receiving ability.
"Repair" means the restoration of out of service conditions as well
as correction of service-affecting conditions.
"Telecommunications carrier" or "carrier" means a telecommunications
carrier as that term is defined in Section 13-202 of the Act [220
ILCS 5/13-202 ] that is providing local exchange
telecommunications service as defined in Section 13-204 of the
Act.
