Terms Used In U.S. Code > Title 47 > Chapter 5 > Subchapter II > Part I - Common Carrier Regulation

• affiliate: means a person that (directly or indirectly) owns or controls, is owned or controlled by, or is under common ownership or control with, another person. See 47 USC 153
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• association: when used in reference to a corporation, shall be deemed to embrace the words "successors and assigns of such company or association" in like manner as if these last-named words, or words of similar import, were expressed. See 1 USC 5
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• broadcasting: means the dissemination of radio communications intended to be received by the public, directly or by the intermediary of relay stations. See 47 USC 153
• cable service: has the meaning given such term in section 522 of this title. See 47 USC 153
• cable system: has the meaning given such term in section 522 of this title. See 47 USC 153
• carrier: means any person engaged as a common carrier for hire, in interstate or foreign communication by wire or radio or interstate or foreign radio transmission of energy, except where reference is made to common carriers not subject to this chapter. See 47 USC 153
• communication by wire: means the transmission of writing, signs, signals, pictures, and sounds of all kinds by aid of wire, cable, or other like connection between the points of origin and reception of such transmission, including all instrumentalities, facilities, apparatus, and services (among other things, the receipt, forwarding, and delivery of communications) incidental to such transmission. See 47 USC 153
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• customer premises equipment: means equipment employed on the premises of a person (other than a carrier) to originate, route, or terminate telecommunications. See 47 USC 153
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• disability: has the meaning given such term under section 12102 of title 42. See 47 USC 153
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• exchange access: means the offering of access to telephone exchange services or facilities for the purpose of the origination or termination of telephone toll services. See 47 USC 153
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• individual: shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. See 1 USC 8
• information service: means the offering of a capability for generating, acquiring, storing, transforming, processing, retrieving, utilizing, or making available information via telecommunications, and includes electronic publishing, but does not include any use of any such capability for the management, control, or operation of a telecommunications system or the management of a telecommunications service. See 47 USC 153
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• interconnected VoIP service: has the meaning given such term under Section 9. See 47 USC 153
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• license: means that instrument of authorization required by this chapter or the rules and regulations of the Commission made pursuant to this chapter, for the use or operation of apparatus for transmission of energy, or communications, or signals by radio, by whatever name the instrument may be designated by the Commission. See 47 USC 153
• local exchange carrier: means any person that is engaged in the provision of telephone exchange service or exchange access. See 47 USC 153
• mobile service: means a radio communication service carried on between mobile stations or receivers and land stations, and by mobile stations communicating among themselves, and includes (A) both one-way and two-way radio communication services, (B) a mobile service which provides a regularly interacting group of base, mobile, portable, and associated control and relay stations (whether licensed on an individual, cooperative, or multiple basis) for private one-way or two-way land mobile radio communications by eligible users over designated areas of operation, and (C) any service for which a license is required in a personal communications service established pursuant to the proceeding entitled "Amendment to the Commission's Rules to Establish New Personal Communications Services" (GEN Docket No. See 47 USC 153
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• officer: includes any person authorized by law to perform the duties of the office. See 1 USC 1
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• own: means to own an equity interest (or the equivalent thereof) of more than 10 percent. See 47 USC 153
• person: includes an individual, partnership, association, joint-stock company, trust, or corporation. See 47 USC 153
• radio transmission of energy: includes both such transmission and all instrumentalities, facilities, and services incidental to such transmission. See 47 USC 153
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• rural telephone company: means a local exchange carrier operating entity to the extent that such entity&mdash. See 47 USC 153
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• State: includes the District of Columbia and the Territories and possessions. See 47 USC 153
• State: means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States. See 1 USC 7
• State commission: means the commission, board, or official (by whatever name designated) which under the laws of any State has regulatory jurisdiction with respect to intrastate operations of carriers. See 47 USC 153
• station: means a station equipped to engage in radio communication or radio transmission of energy. See 47 USC 153
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• subscription: includes a mark when the person making the same intended it as such. See 1 USC 1
• telecommunications: means the transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user's choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received. See 47 USC 153
• telecommunications carrier: means any provider of telecommunications services, except that such term does not include aggregators of telecommunications services (as defined in section 226 of this title). See 47 USC 153
• telecommunications service: means the offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the facilities used. See 47 USC 153
• telephone exchange service: means (A) service within a telephone exchange, or within a connected system of telephone exchanges within the same exchange area operated to furnish to subscribers intercommunicating service of the character ordinarily furnished by a single exchange, and which is covered by the exchange service charge, or (B) comparable service provided through a system of switches, transmission equipment, or other facilities (or combination thereof) by which a subscriber can originate and terminate a telecommunications service. See 47 USC 153
• telephone toll service: means telephone service between stations in different exchange areas for which there is made a separate charge not included in contracts with subscribers for exchange service. See 47 USC 153
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: means the several States and Territories, the District of Columbia, and the possessions of the United States, but does not include the Canal Zone. See 47 USC 153
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• vessel: includes every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water. See 1 USC 3
• whoever: include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals. See 1 USC 1
• writing: includes printing and typewriting and reproductions of visual symbols by photographing, multigraphing, mimeographing, manifolding, or otherwise. See 1 USC 1