476.96 - DEFINITIONS. - Iowa Statutes

476.96 DEFINITIONS. As used in section 476.95, this section, and sections 476.97 through 476.102, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Basic communications service" includes at a minimum, basic local telephone service, switched access, 911 and E-911 services, and dual party relay service. The board is authorized to classify by rule at any time, any other two-way switched communications services as basic communications services consistent with community expectations and the public interest. 2. "Basic local telephone service" means the provision of dial tone access and usage, for the transmission of two-way switched communications within a local exchange area, including, but not limited to, the following: a. Residence service and business services, including flat rate or local measured service, private branch exchange trunks, trunk type hunting services, direct inward dialing, and the network access portion of central office switched exchange service. b. Extended area service. c. Touch tone service when provided separately. d. Call tracing. e. Calling number blocking on either a per call or a per line basis. f. Local exchange white pages directories. g. Installation and repair of local network access. h. Local operator services, excluding directory assistance. i. Toll service blocking and 1-900 and 1-976 access blocking. 3. "Competitive local exchange service provider" means any person, including a municipal utility, that provides local exchange services, other than a local exchange carrier or a nonrate-regulated wireline provider of local exchange services under an authorized certificate of public convenience and necessity within a specific geographic area described in maps filed with and approved by the board as of September 30, 1992. 4. "Interim number portability" means one or more mechanisms by which a local exchange customer at a particular location may change the customer's local exchange services provider without any change in the local exchange customer's telephone number, while experiencing as little loss of functionality as is feasible using available technology. 5. "Local exchange carrier" means any person that was the incumbent and historical rate-regulated wireline provider of local exchange services or any successor to such person that provides local exchange services under an authorized certificate of public convenience and necessity within a specific geographic area described in maps filed with and approved by the board as of September 30, 1992. 6. "Nonbasic communications services" means all communications services subject to the board's jurisdiction which are not deemed either by statute or by rule to be basic communications services, including any service offered by the local exchange carrier for the first time after July 1, 1995. A service is not considered new if it constitutes the bundling, unbundling, or repricing of an already existing service. Consistent with community expectations and the public interest, the board may reclassify by rule as nonbasic those two-way switched communications services previously classified by rule as basic. 7. "Provider number portability" means the capability of a local exchange customer to change the customer's local exchange services provider at the customer's same location without any change in the local exchange customer's telephone number, while preserving the full range of functionality that the customer currently experiences. "Provider number portability" includes the equal availability of information concerning the local exchange provider serving the number to all carriers, and the ability to deliver traffic directly to that provider without having first to route traffic to the local exchange carrier or otherwise use the services, facilities, or capabilities of the local exchange carrier to complete the call, and without the dialing of additional digits or access codes.          Section History: Recent Form 95 Acts, ch 199, §7; 97 Acts, ch 81, §4, 6 Referred to in § 34A.2, 423.3, 476.1B, 476.29, 476.55, 476.97, 476.101, 476.102