Terms Used In U.S. Code > Title 47 > Chapter 5 > Subchapter II > Part II - Development of Competitive Markets

• 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
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• 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.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• 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
• 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
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• corporation: includes any corporation, joint-stock company, or association. See 47 USC 153
• 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
• dialing parity: means that a person that is not an affiliate of a local exchange carrier is able to provide telecommunications services in such a manner that customers have the ability to route automatically, without the use of any access code, their telecommunications to the telecommunications services provider of the customer's designation from among 2 or more telecommunications services providers (including such local exchange carrier). See 47 USC 153
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• 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
• network element: means a facility or equipment used in the provision of a telecommunications service. See 47 USC 153
• number portability: means the ability of users of telecommunications services to retain, at the same location, existing telecommunications numbers without impairment of quality, reliability, or convenience when switching from one telecommunications carrier to another. 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.
• person: includes an individual, partnership, association, joint-stock company, trust, or corporation. See 47 USC 153
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• 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 equipment: means equipment, other than customer premises equipment, used by a carrier to provide telecommunications services, and includes software integral to such equipment (including upgrades). 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
• 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
• 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