Title 3 . Commerce, Community, and Economic Development

Chapter 48 . Telecommunications

Section 820. Definitions

3 AAC 48.820. Definitions

Unless the context indicates otherwise, in this chapter

(1) "answer" means a document filed by a respondent or other party against whom a petition is directed or who is affected by the filing of a petition or application;

(2) "applicant" means a person requesting authorization the commission has authority to grant;

(3) "application" means a written document, signed by an applicant or the applicant's authorized representative, in which an authorization is requested which the commission has the jurisdictional authority to grant;

(4) "base rate area" or "primary rate area" means a developed area, specifically delineated in a local exchange telephone utility's certificate of public convenience and necessity and in the maps filed as part of its tariff, within which station service is furnished to subscribers without requiring them to pay mileage charges or to make any contribution in aid of construction;

(5) "central office" means a switching unit in a telephone system having the necessary equipment and operating arrangements for terminating and interconnecting the lines of subscribers or farmer lines and toll lines or interoffice trunks;

(6) "commission" means the Regulatory Commission of Alaska;

(7) "commissioner" means a member of the commission;

(8) "complainant" means a person who complains to the commission of anything done or not done in contravention or violation of the provisions of any statute or other delegated authority administered by the commission, or of any requirement of the commission or any other alleged wrong;

(9) repealed 6/29/84;

(10) "effective tariff" means a tariff that has been filed, noticed and placed in effect in full compliance with all the procedural requirements established by law and by this chapter;

(11) "exchange" or "local exchange" means an operating unit established by a utility for communication service within a specific geographic area; the unit usually embraces a city, town, village or community and its environs, and usually consists of one or more central offices together with the associated plant used in furnishing telephone communication service to the general public within that area;

(12) "exchange area" means a specific area in which a developed local exchange telephone service is furnished by a utility;

(13) "filing or submittal" means applications, declarations, complaints, petitions, and other papers seeking commission action; financial, statistical, and other reports to the commission; original cost and reclassification studies, proposed accounting entries, tariff filings, and other submittals to the commission in compliance with a statute, regulation, or other commission requirement; answers, replies, responses, objections, protests, motions, stipulations, exceptions, and other pleadings; exhibits, attachments and appendices; amendments to, corrections of, supplements to, or transmittals or withdrawals of, any of these documents, and any other document filed or submitted under AS 42.05 or AS 42.06 or the applicable provisions of 3 AAC 48, 3 AAC 49, 3 AAC 50, or 3 AAC 52;

(14) "hearing examiner" means any of the following individuals, if authorized and designated by the commission to preside at hearings and perform other duties associated with a formal proceeding:

(A) a member of the commission's staff;

(B) an individual whom the commission employs on a contractual basis;

(C) an employee or officer of an agency of this state, other than the commission;

(15) "informal complaint" means a complaint against a utility involving a jurisdictional matter by a person who, at least initially, prefers to invoke the commission's assistance by means other than a formal proceeding;

(16) "intervenor" means a person who is a party to a proceeding other than an applicant, complainant, petitioner, protestant, or respondent, and who is permitted by the commission, or a commissioner, by law or by order to intervene and become a party to a formal proceeding before the commission in accordance with the criteria set out in 3 AAC 48.110;

(17) "jurisdictional" means any matter which falls within the regulatory jurisdiction of the commission by virtue of a statute or any provision of 3 AAC 48, 3 AAC 49, 3 AAC 50, or 3 AAC 52;

(18) "line extension" means an extension of the lines, cables or radio link facilities of a utility's outside plant facilities which must be installed to provide service to customers so located that they cannot be served from plant facilities already installed and in service;

(19) "local exchange telephone utility" means a utility engaged in the business of furnishing communications service to the public for compensation through one or more local telephone exchanges which may be operated separately or in conjunction with one or more other local telephone exchanges through directly interconnected circuitry whereby extended area service is provided without requiring the payment of a toll charge;

(20) "motion" means a document filed, incidental to an action before the commission, for the purpose of obtaining a ruling or order directing that some action designated by the movant be taken;

(21) "movant" means the moving party in any pleading;

(22) "participant" means an interested member of the public or the public advocacy section who comments or advocates a position, orally or in writing, on an application, tariff filing, complaint, investigation, or other matter or proceeding before the commission;

(23) "party" means a person who is designated as a party by statute or by the commission by order in a proceeding; "party" includes an applicant, a complainant, a petitioner, a respondent, an intervenor, a protestant, and the public advocacy section;

(24) "person" includes a corporation (whether public, private, cooperative, or otherwise), body politic, political subdivision or governmental instrumentality, proprietorship, company, partnership, firm, incorporated or unincorporated association, group of persons, organization, business trust, society, trustee or receiver appointed by a court, a natural person, and the commission's entire staff or any member of the commission's staff;

(25) "petition" means a document filed to initiate a proceeding involving the jurisdiction of the commission;

(26) "petitioner" means a person who files a petition or an application for an affirmative act by the commission;

(27) "presiding officer" means a member of the commission who presides at a hearing or conference or an individual designated by the commission to preside at a hearing or conference;

(28) "procedural order" means an order fixing the time and place of a hearing, or the date, or dates, when pleadings must be filed, or any matter associated with the conduct of an investigation, prehearing conference, or proceeding prior to a final order of the commission containing its conclusions, findings and final decision in a proceeding;

(29) "proceeding" or "formal proceeding" means a jurisdictional formal action instituted by the commission under an assigned caption and docket number, either on complaint, on the commission's own motion, or pursuant to an application, or pleading which requires one or more orders and, in some cases, a hearing that culminates in a decision of the commission which is subject to appeal to a court having jurisdiction over the subject matter of the action;

(30) "proof of service" means a certificate or affidavit of service signed by a party, the party's attorney, or other authorized representative, specifying the time and manner of service and the parties served;

(31) "protestant" means a person who opposes a tariff filing or the granting of an application or petition involving a jurisdictional matter, and who complies with 3 AAC 48.130;

(32) "formal record" or "the record" means every

(A) application, complaint, petition and other papers seeking commission action;

(B) answer, reply, response, objection, protest, motion, stipulation, exception or other pleading, notice, deposition, certificate, proof of service, transcript or brief in a matter or proceeding;

(C) exhibit, attachment to an exhibit, every appendix to exhibit, amendment to an exhibit, correction to an exhibit, supplement to an exhibit, and every letter of transmittal or withdrawal of any matter;

(D) notice or commission order initiating a proceeding;

(E) commission order designating a presiding commissioner or designating a hearing officer, examiner, attorney or other individual for any purpose;

(F) transcript of a hearing;

(G) exhibit received in evidence;

(H) exhibit offered but not received in evidence;

(I) offer or proof; and

(J) motion, stipulation, subpoena, proof of service, and anything else upon which action of the presiding officer may be based, but not any proposed testimony or proposed exhibit which was not offered or was not received in evidence;

(33) "reply" means a document filed by a petitioner, or others, in response to an answer;

(34) "respondent" means a person against whom a complaint, motion, application for declaratory judgment, or a petition is filed or an investigation is initiated;

(35) "service" or "served" (when used in connection with pleadings, notices, decisions, orders, and other papers) means the delivery of one or more copies of a document to the commission, a party, the party's attorney of record or other authorized representative, either in person or by depositing it in the United States mail, first class (with or without certification, or registration and return receipt required) with postage prepaid, and addressed to the party, the party's attorney, or other authorized representative at the mailing address of record;

(36) "special contract" includes

(A) a written agreement between a utility and a customer which contains rates, tolls, rentals or charges, or terms and conditions that deviate substantially from those contained in the same utility's effective tariff for like service offered to the general public under comparable conditions, but excludes contracts that deviate from the serving utility's effective tariff only in respect to incidental matters such as access to the premises, points of delivery, measuring devices, etc., and do not have the effect of granting the contracting customer an unreasonable preference or advantage or of subjecting the customer to an unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage as to rates, service or facilities; or

(B) a written agreement between a utility and a customer entered into with express commission approval and providing for interim, retroactively reviewable and revisable rates for service or equipment for which the utility has filed a tariff the operation of which has been suspended by the commission;

(37) repealed 3/21/2003;

(38) repealed 7/12/92;

(39) "radio common carrier" means a radio paging, mobile radiotelephone, or improved mobile telephone public utility service;

(40) "cost-of-service study" means a study of the costs incurred by a utility or pipeline carrier in furnishing service to its customers or shippers, by customer or shipper class, in conformance with generally accepted allocation principles;

(41) "test year" means any 12 consecutive months of operating data selected to evaluate revenue requirements or cost of service; the period selected must be at least as recent as the utility's or pipeline carrier's latest calendar or fiscal year;

(42) "normalized test-year" means a historical test-year adjusted to reflect the effect of known and measurable changes and to delete or average the effect of unusual or nonrecurring events, for the purpose of determining a test year which is representative of normal operations in the immediate future;

(43) "economic regulation" means that the commission's jurisdiction extends to matters concerning rates and charges for public utility or pipeline carrier services, quality of service provided by the utility or pipeline carrier to its customers or shippers, management practices of the utility or pipeline carrier, and customer or shipper complaints concerning the services furnished by a utility or pipeline carrier;

(44) "shipper" means a person or entity which tenders oil or petroleum products to a pipeline carrier for transportation in intrastate commerce in accordance with the pipeline carrier's effective tariff; and

(45) "adjudicatory matters" include commission proceedings that determine disputes between parties or involve rights, privileges, or duties of a party;

(46) repealed 4/24/2004;

(47) "nonpooling company" means a company that is not a participant in the access charge pool established by the Alaska Intrastate Interexchange Access Charge Manual adopted by reference in 3 AAC 48.440;

(48) "pooling company" means a company that is a participant in the access charge pool established by the Alaska Intrastate Interexchange Access Charge Manual adopted by reference in 3 AAC 48.440;

(49) "complete application" means an application that

(A) contains all the information and supporting documents required

(i) in the forms adopted by the commission under 3 AAC 48.620, 3 AAC 48.630, and 3 AAC 48.640; or

(ii) under AS 42.05.325 , 3 AAC 48.625, 3 AAC 52.360, 3 AAC 53.210, or 3 AAC 53.810; and

(B) complies with the filing and general requirements of 3 AAC 48.090 and 3 AAC 48.100;

(50) "public advocacy section" means the section established by AS 42.04.150 within the commission;

(51) "bundled service" means an offering combining two or more services, one of which is a local or intrastate interexchange service, for a package price that may include a discount or some other benefit; "bundled service" does not include a combination of local service offerings at a package price, or a combination of intrastate interexchange service offerings at a package price;

(52) "local exchange carrier" means a local exchange telephone utility certificated to provide local exchange telephone service.

History: Eff. 1/13/73, Register 44; am 1/19/80, Register 73; am 6/29/84, Register 90; am 6/27/92, Register 122; am 7/12/92, Register 123; am 1/10/99, Register 149; am 5/5/2000, Register 154; am 3/21/2003, Register 165; am 4/24/2004, Register 170; am 11/24/2004, Register 172; am 9/16/2005, Register 175

Authority: AS 42.04.070

AS 42.04.080

AS 42.05.141

AS 42.05.151

AS 42.05.361

AS 42.05.391

AS 42.05.411

AS 42.05.431

AS 42.05.441

AS 42.06.055

AS 42.06.140

AS 42.06.350

AS 42.06.370

AS 42.06.380