Packet Switching
US:
The FCC defines
packet switching as the
function (including the necessary electronics, such as routers and
Digital
Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers (DSLAMs)) of routing individual data units,
or 'packets,' over a network based on address or other routing information contained
in the packets themselves.
Pay-Per-Call
Services
US:
Also commonly known as '900 services,' pay-per-call services offer telephone callers
a variety of recorded and interactive information and entertainment programs that
carry charges greater than, or in addition to, the charge for transmitting the
call, and are available through 900 numbers. (See also '900'
Telephone Service)
Pay Phone Service Providers (PSP)
US:
Independent and local exchange carriers who provide
pay phone services, usually in public areas. In the '96 Act `payphone
service' is defined as the provision of public or semi-public pay telephones,
the provision of inmate telephone service in correctional institutions, and any
ancillary services. [See also CI '96 Act Reference I(151)(276)(d)]
Payphone
Service
US:
In the '96 Act `payphone service' is defined as the provision of public or semi-public
pay telephones, the provision of inmate telephone service in correctional institutions,
and any ancillary services. [See also CI '96 Act Reference I(151)(276)(d)]
PEG (Public,
Educational, Governmental) Access (PEG)
Pen register
US: A device used in law enforcement that captures call-identifying information
for numbers dialed from the facility that is the subject of lawful interception
(i.e. outgoing calls). Trap and trace devices capture call-identifying information
for numbers received by the facility that is the subject of lawful interception
(i.e. incoming calls), much like caller-ID systems.
Personal
Communications Services (PCS)
US:
A commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) that encompass mobile and ancillary fixed
communication that provide services to individuals and businesses and can be integrated
with a variety of competing networks. (see 47 C.F.R. § 24.5) (see also
Broadband PCS; Narrowband
PCS)
Permissive
Detariffing
US:
An FCC policy under which carriers are permitted,
but not required, to file tariffs with the FCC. (compare 'complete
detariffing,' an FCC policy under which carriers are not permitted to file
tariffs with the FCC)
Personal Wireless Services
Physical
Collocation
PIC-Change Charge (Pre-subscribed Interexchange
Carrier-Change Charge)
US:
A fee that local telephone companies charge a customer when the customer decides
to change the long distance telephone company to which he or she is pre-subscribed.
The FCC established a $5.00 cap for this charge in 1984 and began a review of
its policies on the PIC-change charge in March 2002 (see
US Rep 32, III.A). Play
or Pay
US:
The "play or pay"
system, adopted by the State of New York, is a system in which new entrants who
interconnect with the incumbent local exchange carrier
agree to serve all customers in their self-defined service areas ("players") potentially
paying a substantially lower interconnection rate than those that serve only selected
customers ("payers") who are liable to pay additional interconnection rates or
contribution charges. (CC Docket 96-98)
Point
of Presence (POP)
US:
An IXC (interexchange carrier) switching facility
located within the local exchange area of an incumbent
local exchange carrier (ILEC) through which interexchange traffic is routed
to and from the IXC's end customer over the local facilities of the LEC. Point
of presence also refers to the facilities of a competing local carrier located
within the local exchange area of an ILEC.
Pole Attachment
US: Any attachment
by a cable television system or provider of telecommunications service to a pole,
duct, conduit, or right-of-way owned or controlled
by a utility. (Communications
Act of 1934, as amended - 47 U.S.C. 224(a)(4))
Potential
Customers (POPS)
US:
Number of potential customers for a service in a given geographic area. Often
used to indicate potential market size in cellular telephony.
Pre-Ordering
and Ordering
US:
In the context of operations support systems
(OSS) used by incumbents local exchange carriers
to provide information and services to competitive entrants, pre-ordering
and ordering includes the exchange of information between the carriers about:
current or proposed customer products and services; or unbundled network
elements, or some combination thereof. This information includes loop qualification
information, such as the composition of the loop material, including but not limited
to: fiber optics or copper; the existence, location and type of any electronic
or other equipment on the loop, including but not limited to, digital loop carrier
or other remote concentration devices, feeder-distribution interfaces; the loop
length, including the length and location of each type of transmission media;
the wire gauge(s) of the loop; and the electrical parameters of the loop, which
may determine the suitability of the loop for various technologies.
Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier (PIC)
US:
The interexchange carrier selected by a telephone
subscriber as the primary long distance company whose network is directly accessed
by the subscriber when dialing "1" plus the area
code and telephone number of the called party. Once selected, subscribers
may "dial around" the PIC by using the carrier access
code of another interexchange carrier on a call-by-call basis.
Pre-subscribed Interexchange
Carrier-Change Charge (PIC-Change Charge)
US:
A fee that local telephone companies charge a customer when the customer decides
to change the long distance telephone company to which he or she is pre-subscribed.
The FCC established a $5.00 cap for this charge in 1984 and began a review of
its policies on the PIC-change charge in March 2002 (see
US Rep 32, III.A).
Presubscribed
Interexchange Carrier Charge (PICC)
US:
Prior to its elimination by
the FCC in May 2000 as part of a broader access charge reform package (see
US Rep 21, II.B.), the PICC was a flat-rate, per-line access charge assessed
by local exchange carriers (LECs) on a subscriber's
presubscribed interexchange carrier (PIC) that
goes to the LEC to defray that part of the cost of a subscriber's local loop assigned
to the interstate jurisdiction and not recovered by the end-user subscriber
line charge (SLC). Where an end user declines to select a PIC, the PIC charge
will be assessed on the end user. The PICC was first established by the FCC in
its May 1997 Access Charge Order to replace over time the per-minute carrier
common line charge (CCLC), which is considered inefficient because it recovers
a fixed (loop) cost from a usage-sensitive charge. The PICC took effect on January
1, 1998. [See also Access Charges, CCLC,
PIC, SLC]
Price Cap Regulation
A form of rate (price) regulation that permits rates to increase
by no more than the "price cap index," or PCI, a measure of general inflation
minus an "X-Factor" that largely reflects a reasonable productivity target. The
higher the X-Factor, the more downward pressure price
cap regulation applies to rates. Traditionally, the X-Factor represented the
amount by which carrier productivity had historically
exceeded productivity in the economy generally. In 1990, the FCC adopted mandatory
price cap regulation for the Bell Operating Companies and GTE for calculating
access charges to be paid to them by long distance
carriers and subscribers for use of the local network to originate and terminate
long distance calls. When the FCC reformed its access charge rules in May 2000
(see US Rep 21,
II.B.) it decided that the X-factor used by ILECs to calculate access charges
would no longer be based on assumed growth in productivity, but would be deliberately
set to reduce access charges at a certain pace. Smaller local
exchange carriers remain under rate-of-return
regulation but may elect to be governed by price cap regulation. The
price cap rules divide incumbent LEC services among four baskets, with each basket
being subject to a separate price cap index (PCI). Price cap ILECs serve more
than 92 percent of the total subscriber lines in the country, accounting for approximately
91 percent of the revenues. (See also Access Charges and Rate-of-Return Regulation)
Private Branch Exchange (PBX)
US:
A multi-line electronic telephone switching exchange located on the premises of
the customer that acts as a branch of the telephone company's local central office
for the private use of the customer. Compare Centrex,
which is the use of the switching system at the local central office as if it
were a PBX. Private Carrier
US:
In general, a private carrier is a service provider
who may choose its clients on an individual basis, determining in each particular
case whether and on what terms to serve, and may design its system to meet its
own communications needs rather than those of its customers. The
terms and conditions of a carrier's particular service and the way it holds itself
out to the public are the key determinants as to whether a carrier is a 'common'
or 'private' carrier.
A 'common carrier'
must provide a service indifferently to all potential
customers, and that service must enable customers to transmit intelligence
of their own design and choosing. A 'private carrier' has no such obligations.
Indicative of private carriage are: (1) lack
of a legal compulsion to serve the public indiscriminately; (2) insignificant
carrier market power; (3) medium-to-long range service contracts that ensure a
relatively stable clientele, and (4) contracts tailored to the particular needs
of the carrier's customers.
Unlike
common carriers, private carriers are not required to secure authorization from
the FCC to provide their services under Section
214 (Extension of Lines) of the Communications
Act of 1934, as amended. (see also Common Carrier)
Private Operational Fixed
Microwave Service (FS)
(See
Fixed Microwave Service)
Proportionate
Return Requirement
Public
Interest Payphone
US:
Payphones provided in the interest of public health, safety, and welfare in locations
where there otherwise would not be a payphone (see Communications
Act of 1934, Section 276).
Public Safety Answering Point
(PSAP)
US:
A centralized agency or facility operated by local governments that receives and
responds to emergency calls. (see also 911 and
enhanced 911)
Public Safety
Wireless Advisory Committee (PSWAC)
US:
An advisory committee sponsored by the FCC and the National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (NTIA) of the US Department of Commerce which was
established to provide advice and recommendations regarding the specific communications
needs of public safety agencies. PSWAC was established in the wake of the Budget
Act of 1993 in which the US Congress required the FCC to develop a framework to
ensure that public safety communications needs are met through the year 2010.
Public
Telecommunications Network Interconnectivity
Public
Utility Commission (PUC)
US:
Agencies established by individual States to regulate, among other utility services,
local telephone service and other purely intra-state telecommunications services
over which States have jurisdiction. Some States use the term Public Service Commission
(PSC).