UTILITIES AND TRANSPORTATION

COMMISSION

The definitions in this section apply throughout the chapter except where there is an alternative definition in a specific section, or where the context clearly requires otherwise.

"Access charge" means a rate charged by a local exchange company to an interexchange company for the origination, transport, or termination of a call to or from a customer of the local exchange company. Such origination, transport, and termination may be accomplished either through switched access service or through special or dedicated access service.

"Access line" means a circuit providing exchange service between a customer's standard network interface and a serving switching center.

"Affiliate" means an entity that directly or indirectly owns or controls, is owned or controlled by, or is under common ownership or control with, another entity.

"Affiliated interest" means a person or corporation as defined in RCW 80.16.010.

"Ancillary services" means all local service features excluding basic service.

"Applicant" means any person applying to a telecommunications company for new service or reconnection of discontinued service.

"Average busy hour" means a time-consistent hour of the day during which a switch or trunk carries the most traffic. This definition is applied on an individual switch and an individual trunk basis.

"Basic service" means service that includes the following:

• Single-party service;

• Voice grade access to the public switched network;

• Support for local use;

• Dual tone multifrequency signaling (touch-tone);

• Access to emergency services (E911);

• Access to operator services;

• Access to interexchange services;

• Access to directory assistance; and

• Toll limitation services.

"Business" means a for profit or not-for-profit organization, including, but not limited to, corporations, partnerships, sole proprietorships, limited liability companies, government agencies, and other entities or associations.

"Business days" means days of the week excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and official state holidays.

"Business office" means an office or service center provided and maintained by a company.

"Business service" means service other than residential service.

"Busy season" means an annual, recurring, and reasonably predictable three-month period of the year when a switch or trunk carries the most traffic. This definition is applied on an individual switch and an individual trunk basis.

"Call aggregator" means any corporation, company, partnership, or person, who, in the ordinary course of its operations, makes telephones available to the public or to users of its premises for telephone calls using a provider of operator services, including, but not limited to, hotels, motels, hospitals, campuses, and pay phones (see also pay phone service providers).

"Category of service" means local, data services such as digital subscriber line service, interexchange, or CMRS. Information about a customer's intraLATA and interLATA primary interexchange carrier freeze status is part of the local category.

"Central office" means a company facility that houses the switching and trunking equipment serving a defined area.

"Centrex" means a telecommunications service providing a customer with direct inward dialing to telephone extensions and direct outward dialing from them.

"Class A company" means a local exchange company with two percent or more of the access lines within the state of Washington. The method of determining whether a company is a Class A company is specified in WAC 480-120-034 (Classification of local exchange companies as Class A or Class B).

"Class B company" means a local exchange company with less than two percent of the access lines within the state of Washington. The method of determining whether a company is a Class B company is specified in WAC 480-120-034 (Classification of local exchange companies as Class A or Class B).

"Commercial mobile radio service (CMRS)" means any mobile (wireless) telecommunications service that is provided for profit that makes interconnected service available to the public or to such classes of eligible users as to be effectively available to a substantial portion of the public.

"Commission (agency)" in a context meaning a state agency, means the Washington utilities and transportation commission.

"Company" means any telecommunications company as defined in RCW 80.04.010.

"Competitively classified company" means a company that is classified as competitive by the commission pursuant to RCW 80.36.320.

"Control" means the possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a company, whether through the ownership of voting shares, by contract, or otherwise.

"Customer" means a person to whom the company is currently providing service.

"Customer premises equipment (CPE)" is equipment located on the customer side of the SNI (other than a company) and used to originate, route, or terminate telecommunications.

"Department" means the department of social and health services.

"Discontinue; discontinuation; discontinued" means the termination or any restriction of service to a customer.

"Drop facilities" means company-supplied wire and equipment placed between a premises and the company distribution plant at the applicant's property line.

"Due date" means the date an action is required to be completed by rule or, when permitted, the date chosen by a company and provided to a customer as the date to complete an action.

"Eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC)" means a carrier designated as an ETC pursuant to 47 U.S.C. Sec. 214(e).

"Emergency response facility" means fire stations, hospitals, police stations, and state and municipal government emergency operations centers.

"Exchange" means a geographic area established by a company for telecommunications service within that area.

"Extended area service (EAS)" means telephone service extending beyond a customer's exchange, for which the customer may pay an additional flat-rate amount per month.

"Facility or facilities" means lines, conduits, ducts, poles, wires, cables, cross-arms, receivers, transmitters, instruments, machines, appliances, instrumentalities and all devices, real estate, easements, apparatus, property and routes used, operated, owned or controlled by a telecommunications company to facilitate the provision of telecommunications service.

"Force majeure" means natural disasters, including fire, flood, earthquake, windstorm, avalanche, mudslide, and other similar events; acts of war or civil unrest when an emergency has been declared by appropriate governmental officials; acts of civil or military authority; embargoes; epidemics; terrorist acts; riots; insurrections; explosions; and nuclear accidents.

"Interexchange" means telephone calls, traffic, facilities or other items that originate in one exchange and terminate in another.

"Interexchange company" means a company, or division thereof, that provides long distance (toll) service.

"Interoffice facilities" means facilities connecting two or more telephone switching centers.

"InterLATA" is a term used to describe services, revenues, functions, etc., that relate to telecommunications originating in one LATA and terminating outside of the originating LATA.

"IntraLATA" is a term used to describe services, revenues, functions, etc., that relate to telecommunications that originate and terminate within the same LATA.

"Local access and transport area (LATA)" means a local access transport area as defined by the commission in conformance with applicable federal law.

"Local calling area" means one or more rate centers within which a customer can place calls without incurring long-distance (toll) charges.

"Local exchange company (LEC)" means a company providing local exchange telecommunications service.

"Major outages" means a service failure lasting for thirty or more minutes that causes the disruption of local exchange or toll services to more than one thousand customers; total loss of service to a public safety answering point or emergency response agency; intercompany trunks or toll trunks not meeting service requirements for four hours or more and affecting service; or an intermodal link blockage (no dial tone) in excess of five percent for more than one hour in any switch or remote switch.

"Missed commitment" means orders for exchange access lines for which the company does not provide service by the due date.

"Order date" means the date when an applicant requests service unless a company identifies specific actions a customer must first take in order to be in compliance with tariffs or commission rules. Except as provided in WAC 480-120-061 (Refusing service) and 480-120-104 (Information to consumers), when specific actions are required of the applicant, the order date becomes the date the actions are completed by the applicant if the company has not already installed or activated service.

"Pay phone" or "pay telephone" means any telephone made available to the public on a fee-per-call basis independent of any other commercial transaction. A pay phone or pay telephone includes telephones that are coin-operated or are activated by calling collect or using a calling card.

"Pay phone services" means provision of pay phone equipment to the public for placement of local exchange, interexchange, or operator service calls.

"Pay phone service provider (PSP)" means any corporation, company, partnership, or person who owns or operates and makes pay phones available to the public.

"Payment agency" means a physical location established by a local exchange company, either on its own premises or through a subcontractor, for the purpose of receiving cash and urgent payments from customers.

"Person" means an individual, or an organization such as a firm, partnership, corporation, municipal corporation, agency, association or other entity.

"Prior obligation" means an amount owed to a local exchange company or an interexchange company for regulated services at the time the company physically toll-restricts, interrupts, or discontinues service for nonpayment.

"Proprietary" means owned by a particular person.

"Provision" means supplying telecommunications service to a customer.

"Public access line (PAL)" means an access line equipped with features to detect coins, permit the use of calling cards, and such other features as may be used to provision a pay phone.

"Public safety answering point (PSAP)" means an answering location for enhanced 911 (E911) calls originating in a given area. PSAPs are designated as primary or secondary. Primary PSAPs receive E911 calls directly from the public; secondary PSAPs receive E911 calls only on a transfer or relay basis from the primary PSAP. Secondary PSAPs generally serve as centralized answering locations for a particular type of emergency call.

"Radio communications service company" has the meaning found in RCW 80.04.010, except that for the purposes of this section it includes only those companies providing two-way voice communication as a common carrier.

"Residential service" means basic service to a household.

"Restricted basic service" means either the ability to receive incoming calls, make outgoing calls, or both through voice grade access to the public switched network, including E911 access, but not including other services that are a part of basic service.

"Results of operations" means a fiscal year financial statement concerning regulated operations that include revenues, expenses, taxes, net operating income, and rate base. The rate of return is also included as part of the results of operations. The rate of return is the percentage of net operating income to the rate base.

"Service interruption" means a loss of or impairment of service that is not due to, and is not, a major outage.

"Service provider" means any business that offers a product or service to a customer, the charge for which appears on the customer's telephone bill.

"Special circuit" means an access line specially conditioned to give it characteristics suitable for handling special or unique services.

"Standard network interface (SNI)" means the protector that generally marks the point of interconnection between company communications facilities and customer's terminal equipment, protective apparatus, or wiring at a customer's premises. The network interface or demarcation point is located on the customer's side of the company's protector, or the equivalent thereof in cases where a protector is not employed.

"Station" means a telephone instrument installed for a customer to use for toll and exchange service.

"Subscriber list information (SLI)" means any information:

(a) Identifying the listed names of subscribers of a company and those subscribers' telephone numbers, addresses, or primary advertising classifications (as such classifications are assigned when service is established), or any combination of listed names, numbers, addresses, or classifications; and

(b) That the company or an affiliate has published, caused to be published, or accepted for publication in any directory format.

"Subsidiary" means any company in which the telecommunications company owns directly or indirectly five percent or more of the voting securities, unless the telecommunications company demonstrates it does not have control.

"Support structure" means the trench, pole, or conduit used to provide a path for placement of drop facilities.

"Telecommunications service" means the offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the facilities used.

"Telemarketing" means contacting a person by telephone in an attempt to sell one or more products or services.

"Toll restriction" or "toll restricted" means a service that prevents the use of a local access line to initiate a long distance call using a presubscribed interexchange company.

"Traffic" means telecommunications activity on a telecommunications network, normally used in connection with measurements of capacity of various parts of the network.

"Trouble report" means a report of service affecting network problems reported by customers, and does not include problems on the customer's side of the SNI.

"Trunk" means, in a telecommunications network, a path connecting two switching systems used to establish end-to-end connection. In some circumstances, both of its terminations may be in the same switching system.

(1) A company may refuse to connect with, or provide service to, an applicant under the following conditions:

(a) When service will adversely affect the service to existing customers.

(b) When the installation is considered hazardous.

(c) When the applicant has not complied with commission rules, company tariff, or rates, terms and conditions pursuant to competitive classification, and state, county, or municipal codes concerning the provision of telecommunications service such as building and electrical codes.

(d) When the company is unable to substantiate the identity of the individual requesting service.

(i) Companies must allow the applicant to substantiate identity with one piece of identification chosen from a list, provided by the company, of at least four sources of identification. The list must include a current driver's license or other picture identification.

(ii) Company business offices and payment agencies, required under WAC ((480-120-132)) 480-120-104(5) and 480-120-162, must provide a means for applicants to provide identification at no charge to the applicant.

(e) When the applicant has previously received service from the company by providing false information, including false statements of credit references or employment, false statement of premises address, or use of an alias or false name with intent to deceive, until the applicant corrects the false information to the satisfaction of the company.

(f) When the applicant owes an overdue, unpaid prior obligation to the company for the same class of service, until the obligation is paid or satisfactory arrangements are made.

(g) When the applicant requests service at an address where a former customer is known to reside with an overdue, unpaid prior obligation to the same company for the same class of service at that address and the company determines, based on objective evidence, that the applicant has cooperated with the prior customer with the intent to avoid payment. However, a company may not deny service if a former customer with an overdue, unpaid prior obligation has permanently vacated the address.

(h) When all necessary rights of way, easements, and permits have not been secured. The company is responsible for securing all necessary public rights of way, easements, and permits, including rights of way on every highway as defined in RCW 36.75.010(11) or created under RCW 36.75.070 or 36.75.080. The applicant is responsible for securing all necessary rights of way or easements on private property, including private roads or driveways as defined in RCW 36.75.010(10). A private road or driveway is one that has been ascertained by the company not to be public.

(2) A company may not withhold or refuse to release a telephone number to a customer who is transferring service to another telecommunications company within the same rate center where local number portability has been implemented.

(3) A telecommunications company must deny service to a nonregistered telecommunications company that intends to use the service requested to provide telecommunications for hire, sale, or resale to the general public within the state of Washington. Any telecommunications company requesting service from another telecommunications company must state in writing whether the service is intended to be used for intrastate telecommunications for hire, sale, or resale to the general public. If the service is intended for hire, sale, or resale on an intrastate basis, the company must certify in writing, in the same manner as required by RCW 9A.72.085, that it is properly registered with the commission to provide the service.

(1) When contacted by an applicant, or when a company contacts a person, a company must:

(a) Accept and process applications when an applicant for service for a particular location has met all tariff requirements and applicable commission rules;

(b) Establish the due date as the date requested by the applicant but is not required to establish a due date that is fewer than seven business days after the order date. If the company establishes a due date other than the date requested by the applicant, it must inform the applicant of the specific date when service will be provided or state that an estimated due date will be provided within seven business days as required by subsection (2) of this section; and

(c) Maintain a record in writing, or in electronic format, of each application for service, including requests for a change of service.

(2) If the company does not provide the applicant with a due date for installation or activation at the time of application as required in subsection (1)(b) of this section, the company must state the reason for the delay. Within seven business days of the date of the application, the company must provide the applicant with an estimated due date for installation or activation. ((The standards imposed by WAC 480-120-105 (Company performance standards for installation or activation of access lines) and 480-120-112 (Company performance for orders for nonbasic services) are not altered by this subsection.))

(3) When the company informs the customer that installation of new service orders requires on-premises access by the company, the company must offer the customer an opportunity for an installation appointment that falls within a four-hour period.

(4) When the application for service requires an extension of service as defined in WAC 480-120-071 (Extension of service), the requirement of subsection (1)(b) of this section does not apply.

(1) General. Applicants or customers, excluding telecommunications companies as defined in RCW 80.04.010, are entitled to, and a company must allow, an initial use, and then, once every five years dating from the customer's most recent use of the option, an option to pay a prior obligation over not less than a six-month period. The company must restore service upon payment of the first installment if an applicant is entitled to the payment arrangement provided for in this section and, if applicable, the first installment of a deposit is paid as provided for in WAC 480-120-122 (Establishing credit—Residential services).

(2) ((Restoring service based on Washington telephone assistance program (WTAP) or federal enhanced tribal lifeline program eligibility. Local exchange companies (LECs) must restore service for any customer who has had basic service discontinued for nonpayment under WAC 480-120-172 (Discontinuing service—Company initiated) if the customer was not a participant in either the Washington telephone assistance program (WTAP) or the federal enhanced tribal lifeline program at the time service was discontinued and if the customer is eligible to participate in WTAP or the federal enhanced tribal lifeline program at the time the restoration of service is requested. To have service restored under this subsection, a customer must establish eligibility for either WTAP or the federal enhanced tribal lifeline program, agree to continuing participation in WTAP or the federal enhanced tribal lifeline program, agree to pay unpaid basic service and ancillary service amounts due to the LEC at the monthly rate of no more than one and one-half times the telephone assistance rate required to be paid by WTAP participants as ordered by the commission under WAC 480-122-020 (Washington telephone assistance program rate), agree to toll restriction, or ancillary service restriction, or both, if the company requires it, until the unpaid amounts are paid. Companies must not charge for toll restriction when restoring service under this section.

(3))) Nothing in this rule precludes the company from entering into separate payment arrangements with any customer for unpaid toll charges or over a longer period than described in this rule as long as both the company and the customer agree to the payment arrangement. Longer payment arrangements as described in this subsection satisfy the requirements in subsection (1) or (2) of this section.

(1) A company must repair all out-of-service interruptions within forty-eight hours, unless the company is unable to make the repair because it is physically obstructed from doing so or because of force majeure, in which case the repair must be made as soon as practicable. The forty-eight hour requirement does not apply to out-of-service interruptions that are part of a major outage under WAC 480-120-412.

For purposes of this section an out-of-service interruption is defined as a condition that prevents the use of the telephone exchange line for purposes of originating or receiving a call and does not include trouble reported for nonregulated services such as voice messaging, inside wiring, or customer premises equipment.

(2) A company must repair all other regulated service interruptions within seventy-two hours, unless the company is unable to make the repair because it is physically obstructed from doing so or because of force majeure, in which case the repair must be made as soon as practicable. The seventy-two hour requirement does not apply to out-of-service interruptions that are part of a major outage under WAC 480-120-412.

(3) The forty-eight-hour and seventy-two-hour standards do not apply during company work stoppages directly affecting provision of service in the state of Washington.

(4) When the company informs the customer that repair requires on-premises access by the company with the customer present, the company must offer the customer an opportunity for an installation appointment that falls within a four-hour period.

(5) A company is considered to have met its obligations under this rule if it conducts tests during the prescribed period that indicates that the customer's service is operating within industry standards. The company must make all test information available to the commission upon request.

(6) A company is considered to have met its obligations under this rule if it conducts tests during the prescribed period which demonstrate that the reported problem may only be cleared from within the customer's premises and the company is either unable to reach the customer to arrange access or is refused access by the customer. The company must make all test information and customer contact logs available to the commission upon request.

(7) For the purposes of this section, Sundays and legal holidays are not considered working days and are therefore excluded from the forty-eight-hour and seventy-two-hour periods.

(8) In instances when repair requires construction work, the forty-eight-hour and seventy-two-hour periods begin when a company has received appropriate authorization from the applicable governing body associated with the repair (e.g., utility location services are completed and, if applicable, a permit is granted). A company must contact the appropriate authorities to request applicable utility location services and permits when the company determines that a repair situation requires construction work to correct. Upon receiving any repair report that requires construction work, a company must contact the appropriate authorities as soon as practicable to request utility location services and permits, if applicable.

(9) When a company plans a service interruption, it must make reasonable efforts to notify customers that it determines service will be affected not less than seven days in advance or, if seven days' notice is not possible, as soon as the interrupted service is planned. A notice is not required for planned service interruptions that have a duration of less than five minutes and occur between the hours of 12:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.