USComTel - Glossary of Terms

911 Equalization Surcharge
A supplement to the 911 Service Fee for regions where 50 cents is not enough. The surcharges are up to three-tenths of 1 percent of intrastate long distance service.

911 Service Fee
Up to fifty cents a month pays for emergency phone services in the area. It is collected.

Access Line Charge
An act relating to the provision of local exchange telephone service in a municipality and the management by the municipality of public rights-of-way used by providers of that service. The telecommunication providers are to collect this charge for the cities. Each city sets its own rates and these rates are approved by the PUC.

ATM (asynchronous transfer mode)
A dedicated-connection switching technology that organizes digital data into units and transmits them over a physical medium using digital signal technology.

BTN
This is the Bill to Number. The BTN is the main number in the Customer data base. There can be only one BTN at a time for a customer.

Centrex (CentraNet or Plexar)
A software-based dial tone providing many features through local phone service normally found in sophisticated phone systems. With these software-based services, individual phone lines can be used as extensions or intercom stations, each line has many features available, and the service can grow as needed without large expenditures for phone system upgrades. USCom representative can analyze current services vs. software-based on the effectiveness and/or savings for you company. CentraNet, Centrex, and Plexar is available in most areas of Texas.

CLEC
Short for Competitive Local Exchange Carrier, a company that competes with an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) such as Verizon, AT&T, etc. After deregulation of the telephone industry in 1996 consumers, consumers are able to choose between carriers in their area.

DS3
Digital transmission rate of 44.736 Mbps carried inside T3 carrier systems.

Expanded Local Calling Service Surcharge (ELCS)
Everyone pays a surcharge so that rural customers won't have to pay long distance fees to call the nearest schools, government, agencies, hospitals, and businesses. This surcharge varies: Southwestern Bell charges 16 cents per month and GTE charges 73 cents.

Extended Area Service Fee and Surcharges
Same as ELCS, but relates to rural customers' ability to call into continuous areas. This service charge and ELCS never both appear on the same bill.

FCC Approved Customer Line Charge
Pays for the telephone equipment that links a house or business to the network. The local telephone company collects a maximum fee of $3.50 for each primary line. The maximum charge for each additional residential line jumps to $6.07 for residences and $9.21 for businesses.

Federal Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier Charge
Customers pay $1.04 to the local phone company each month to keep the connection with a long distance provider. It's a reimbursement for the charge the long distance company assesses the local phone company, but neither are required to recover this charge.

Federal Universal Service Fee
Pays for the discounts phone companies give to schools, libraries, rural health care providers, and low-income customers. If the company pays the charge, the company may recover it from customers, although not required to do so. The amount of the charge on the long distance and other telecommunications bills varies from Sprint's 4.5 percent to AT&T's 8.6 percent. In the Universal Service Order released May 8, 1997, the Federal Communications Commission established new federal universal service support mechanisms consistent with the Communications Act of 1934, as amended. The money raised will be used to wire schools, libraries, and rural health-care centers for telecommunications. The Commission required all telecommunications carriers that provide interstate telecommunications, providers of intrastate telecommunications, and payphone service providers to contribute to the federal universal support mechanisms.

Frame Relay
A service designed for cost-efficient data transmission for intermittent traffic between local area networks and between end-points in a wide area network.

Hunting
A feature that allows calls to find you wherever you are, ringing multiple phone numbers.

ILEC
Short for Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier. An ILEC is a telephone company that was providing local service when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was enacted (i.e. AT&T).

Municipal Charge
The phone company pays the city for the right to run wires through the city, the company passes the cost to customers.

Number Portability Service Charge
All customers pay charge so they won't have to change a phone number if they change local carriers. The local telephone company collects 33 cents charge found on local telephone bill.

Poison Control Surcharge
This long-distance charge funds the toll-free poison information centers. The charge is at the rate as the 911 Service Fee.

Public Utility Gross Receipt Tax
What phone customers pay the state so it can afford to regulate phone companies and other utilities. It amounts to one-sixth to 1 percent of the money the phone company gets. It can appear on local and long distance bills.

State and local sales taxes
It's found on local and long-distance bills the proceeds go to the Texas General Revenue Fund and local governments.

State franchise taxes or fees
The state charges the phone company for the privilege of operating as a business in Texas, and the company passes the charge straight through to the customer. Only certain phone companies charge it, not Southwestern Bell.

T-1
A digital transmission link that normally can handle 24 voice conversations with each conversation being digitized at 64 Kbps. With more advanced digital voice encoding techniques, it can handle more voice channels. Among the most common connections used in telephony.

Texas infrastructure Fund (TIF) Reimbursement
Provides funding for advanced telecommunications services for public schools, hospitals, and libraries. Customers pay 1.25 percent of their local and long distance bill to the TIF.

Texas Universal Service
Almost all of this fee helps telephone companies operating in high cost and rural areas provide assistance programs for the hearing disabled and discounts to low-income customers. Customers see it as a 4 percent charge on their local and long distance bills.

Total Federal Tax
Begun in 1898 to pay for the Spanish-American War. The government never stopped collecting and now socks it away in the Treasury. It accounts for 3 percent of all telephone service charges, local, and long distance.

WTN
All working telephone numbers. This includes the BTN number.