§  36.631   Expense adjustment.

   (a)-(b) [Reserved]

   (c) Beginning January 1, 1988, for study areas reporting 200,000 or
   fewer working loops pursuant to §  36.611(h), the expense adjustment
   (additional interstate expense allocation) is equal to the sum of
   paragraphs (c)(1) through (2) of this section.

   (1) Sixty-five percent of the study area average unseparated loop cost
   per working loop as calculated pursuant to §  36.622(b) in excess of
   115 percent of the national average for this cost but not greater than
   150 percent of the national average for this cost as calculated
   pursuant to §  36.622(a) multiplied by the number of working loops
   reported in §  36.611(h) for the study area; and

   (2) Seventy-five percent of the study area average unseparated loop
   cost per working loop as calculated pursuant to §  36.622(b) in excess
   of 150 percent of the national average for this cost as calculated
   pursuant to §  36.622(a) multiplied by the number of working loops
   reported in §  36.611(h) for the study area.

   (d) Beginning January 1, 1998, for study areas reporting more than
   200,000 working loops pursuant to §  36.611(h), the expense adjustment
   (additional interstate expense allocation) is equal to the sum of
   paragraphs (d)(1) through (4) of this section.

   (1) Ten percent of the study area average unseparated loop cost per
   working loop cost per working loop as calculated pursuant to
   §  36.622(b) in excess of 115 percent of the national average for this
   cost but not greater than 160 percent of the national average for this
   cost as calculated pursuant to §  36.622(a) multiplied by the number of
   working loops reported in §  36.611(h) for the study area;

   (2) Thirty percent of the study area average unseparated loop cost per
   working loop as calculated pursuant to §  36.622(b) in excess of 160
   percent of the national average for this cost but not greater than 200
   percent of the national average for this cost as calculated pursuant to
   §  36.622(a) multiplied by the number of working loops reported in
   §  36.611(h) for the study area;

   (3) Sixty percent of the study area average unseparated loop cost per
   working loop as calculated pursuant to §  36.622(b) in excess of 200
   percent of the national average for this cost but not greater than 250
   percent of the national average for this cost as calculated pursuant to
   §  36.622(a) multiplied by the number of working loops reported in
   §  36.611(h) for the study area; and

   (4) Seventy-five percent of the study area average unseparated loop
   cost per working loop as calculated pursuant to §  36.622(b) in excess
   of 250 percent of the national average for this cost as calculated
   pursuant to §  36.622(a) multiplied by the number of working loops
   reported in §  36.611(h) for the study area.

   (e) Beginning April 1, 1989, the expense adjustment calculated pursuant
   to §  36.631 (c) and (d) shall be adjusted each year to reflect changes
   in the size of the Universal Service Fund resulting from adjustments
   calculated pursuant to §  36.612(a) made during the previous year. If
   the resulting amount exceeds the previous year's fund size, the
   difference will be added to the amount calculated pursuant to §  36.631
   (c) and (d) for the following year. If the adjustments made during the
   previous year result in a decrease in the size of the funding
   requirement, the difference will be subtracted from the amount
   calculated pursuant to §  36.631 (c) and (d) for the following year.

   [ 52 FR 17229 , May 6, 1987, as amended at  53 FR 33011  and 33012, Aug.
   29, 1988;  63 FR 2125 , Jan. 13, 1998;  64 FR 67430 , Dec. 1, 1999;  64 FR 73428 , Dec. 30, 1999;  69 FR 12553 , Mar. 17, 2004;  71 FR 65747 , Nov. 9,
   2006;  76 FR 73854 , Nov. 29, 2011]

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Transitional Expense Adjustment

   return arrow Back to Top

Subpart G [Reserved]

   return arrow Back to Top

Appendix to Part 36--Glossary

   The descriptions of terms in this glossary are broad and have been
   prepared to assist in understanding the use of such terms in the
   separation procedures. Terms which are defined in the text of this part
   are not included in this glossary.

Access Line

   A communications facility extending from a customer's premises to a
   serving central office comprising a subscriber line and, if necessary,
   a trunk facility, e.g., a WATS access line.

Book Cost

   The cost of property as recorded on the books of a company.

Cable Fill Factor

   The ratio of cable conductor or cable pair kilometers in use to total
   cable conductor or cable pair kilometers available in the plant, e.g.,
   the ratio of revenue producing cable pair kilometers in use to total
   cable pair kilometers in plant.

Category

   A grouping of items of property or expense to facilitate the
   apportionment of their costs among the operations and to which,
   ordinarily, a common measure of use is applicable.

Central Office

   A switching unit, in a telephone system which provides service to the
   general public, having the necessary equipment and operations
   arrangements for terminating and interconnecting subscriber lines and
   trunks or trunks only. There may be more than one central office in a
   building.

Channel

   An electrical path suitable for the transmission of communications
   between two or more points, ordinarily between two or more stations or
   between channel terminations in Telecommunication Company central
   offices. A channel may be furnished by wire, fiberoptics, radio or a
   combination thereof.

Circuit

   A fully operative communications path established in the normal circuit
   layout and currently used for message, WATS access, or private line
   services.

Circuit Kilometers

   The route kilometers or revenue producing circuits in service,
   determined by measuring the length in terms of kilometers, of the
   actual path followed by the transmission medium.

Common Channel Network Signaling

   Channels between switching offices used to transmit signaling
   information independent of the subscribers' communication paths or
   transmission channels.

Complement (of cable)

   A group of conductors of the same general type (e.g., quadded, paired)
   within a single cable sheath.

Complex

   All groups of operator positions, wherever located, associated with the
   same call distribution and/or stored program control unit.

Concentration Equipment

   Central office equipment whose function is to concentrate traffic from
   subscriber lines onto a lesser number of circuits between the remotely
   located concentration equipment and the serving central office
   concentration equipment. This concentration equipment is connected to
   the serving central office line equipment.

Connection--Minute

   The product of (a) the number of messages and, (b) the average minutes
   of connection per message.

Conversation--Minute

   The product of (a) the number of messages and, (b) the average minutes
   of conversation per message.

Conversation--Minute--Kilometers

   The product of (a) the number of messages, (b) the average minutes of
   conversation per message and (c) the average route kilometers of
   circuits involved.

Cost

   The cost of property owned by the Telephone Company whose property is
   to be apportioned among the operations. This term applies either to
   property costs recorded on the books of the company or property costs
   determined by other evaluation methods.

Current Billing

   The combined amount of charges billed, excluding arrears.

Customer Dialed Charge Traffic

   Traffic which is both (a) handled to completion through pulses
   generated by the customer and (b) for which either a message unit
   change, bulk charge or message toll charge is except for that traffic
   recorded by means of message registers.

Customer Premises Equipment

   Items of telecommunications terminal equipment in Accounts 2310
   referred to as CPE in §  64.702 of the Federal Communication
   Commission's Rules adopted in the Second Computer Inquiry such as
   telephone instruments, data sets, dialers and other supplemental
   equipment, and PBX's which are provided by common carriers and located
   on customer premises and inventory included in these accounts to be
   used for such purposes. Excluded from this classification are similar
   items of equipment located on telephone company premises and used by
   the company in the normal course of business as well as over voltage
   protection equipment, customer premises wiring, coin operated public or
   pay telephones, multiplexing equipment to deliver multiple channels to
   the customer, mobile radio equipment and transmit earth stations.

Customer Premises Wire

   The segment of wiring from the customer's side of the protector to the
   customer premises equipment.

DSA Board

   A local dial office switchboard at which are handled assistance calls,
   intercepted calls and calls from miscellaneous lines and trunks. It may
   also be employed for handling certain toll calls.

DSB Board

   A switchboard of a dial system for completing incoming calls received
   from manual offices.

Data Processing Equipment

   Office equipment such as that using punched cards, punched tape,
   magnetic or other comparable storage media as an operating vehicle for
   recording and processing information. Includes machines for
   transcribing raw data into punched cards, etc., but does not include
   such items as key-operated, manually or electrically driven adding,
   calculating, bookkeeping or billing machines, typewriters or similar
   equipment.

Dial Switching Equipment

   Switching equipment actuated by electrical impulses generated by a dial
   or key pulsing arrangement.

Equal Access Costs

   Include only initial incremental presubscription costs and initial
   incremental expenditures for hardware and software related directly to
   the provision of equal access which would not be required to upgrade
   the switching capabilities of the office involved absent the provisions
   of equal access.

Equivalent Gauge

   A standard cross section of cable conductors for use in equating the
   metallic content of cable conductors of all gauge to a common base.

Equivalent Kilometers of 104 Wire

   The basic units employed in the allocation of pole lines costs for
   determining the relative use made of poles by aerial cables and by
   aerial wire conductors of various sizes. This unit reflects the
   relative loads of such cable and wire carried on poles.

Equivalent Pair Kilometers

   The product of sheath Kilometers and the number of equivalent gauge
   pairs of conductors in a cable.

Equivalent Sheath Kilometers

   The product of (a) the length of a section of cable in kilometers
   (sheath kilometers) and (b) the ratio of the metallic content
   applicable to a particular group of conductors in the cable (e.g.,
   conductors assigned to a category) to the metallic content of all
   conductors in the cable.

Exchange Transmission Plant

   This is a combination of (a) exchange cable and wire facilities (b)
   exchange central office circuit equipment, including associated land
   and buildings and (c) information origination/termination equipment
   which forms a complete channel.

Holding Time

   The time in which an item of telephone plant is in actual use either by
   a customer or an operator. For example, on a completed telephone call,
   holding time includes conversation time as well as other time in use.
   At local dial offices any measured minutes which result from other than
   customer attempts to place calls (as evidenced by the dialing of at
   least one digit) are not treated as holding time.

Host Central Office

   An electronic analog or digital base switching unit containing the
   central call processing functions which service the host office and its
   remote locations.

Information Origination/Termination Equipment

   Equipment used to input into or receive output from the
   telecommunications network.

Interexchange Channel

   A circuit which is included in the interexchange transmission
   equipment.

Interexchange Transmission Equipment

   The combination of (a) interexchange cable and wire facilities, (b)
   interexchange circuit equipment and, (c) associated land and buildings.

Interlocal Trunk

   A circuit between two local central office units, either manual or
   dial. Interlocal trunks may be used for either exchange or toll traffic
   or both.

Intertoll Circuits

   Circuits between toll centers and circuits between a toll center and a
   tandem system in a different toll center area.

Local Channel

   The portion of a private line circuit which is included in the exchange
   transmission plant. However, common usage of this term usually excludes
   information origination/termination equipment.

Local Office

   A central office serving primarily as a place of termination for
   subscriber lines and for providing telephone service to the subscribers
   on these lines.

Loop

   A pair of wires, or its equivalent, between a customer's station and
   the central office from which the station is served.

Message

   A completed call, i.e., a communication in which a conversation or
   exchange of information took place between the calling and called
   parties.

Message Service or Message Toll Service

   Switched service furnished to the general public (as distinguished from
   private line service). Except as otherwise provided, this includes
   exchange switched services and all switched services provided by
   interexchange carriers and completed by a local telephone company's
   access services, e.g., MTS, WATS, Execunet, open-end FX and CCSA/ONALs.

Message Units

   Unit of measurement used for charging for measured message telephone
   exchange traffic within a specified area.

Metropolitan Service Area

   The area around and including a relatively large city and in which
   substantially all of the message telephone traffic between the city and
   the suburban points within the area is classified as exchange in one or
   both directions.

Minutes-of-Use

   A unit of measurement expressed as either holding time or conversation
   time.

Minutes-of-Use-Kilometers

   The product of (a) the number of minutes-of-use and (b) the average
   route kilometers of circuits involved.

Multi-Center Exchange

   An exchange area in which are located two or more local central office
   buildings or wire centers.

Operations

   The term denoting the general classifications of services rendered to
   the public for which separate tariffs are filed, namely exchange, state
   toll and interstate toll.

Operator Trunks

   A general term, ordinarily applied to trunks between manually operated
   switchboard positions and local dial central offices in the same wire
   center.

Private Line Service

   A service for communications between specified locations for a
   continuous period or for regularly recurring periods at stated hours.

Remote Access Line

   An access line (e.g., for WATS service) between a subscriber's premises
   in one toll rate center and a serving central office located in a
   different toll rate center.

Remote Line Location

   A remotely located subscriber line access unit which is normally
   dependent upon the central processor of the host office for call
   processing functions.

Remote Trunk Arrangement (RTA)

   Arrangement that permits the extension of TSPS functions to remote
   locations.

Reservation

   That amount or quantity of property kept or set apart for a specific
   use.

Reserved

   Kept or set apart for a specific use.

Separations

   The process by which telecommunication property costs, revenues,
   expenses, taxes and reserves are apportioned among the operations.

Service Observing Unit

   A unit of work measurement which is used as the common denominator to
   express the relative time required for handling the various work
   functions at service observing boards.

Sheath Kilometers

   The actual length of cable in route kilometers.

Special Services

   All services other than message telephones, e.g., private line
   services.

Station-to-Station Basis

   The term applied to the basis of toll rate making which contemplates
   that the message toll service charge (telephone) covers the use made of
   all facilities between the originating station and the terminating
   station, including the stations, and the services rendered in
   connection therewith.

Study Area

   Study area boundaries shall be frozen as they are on November 15, 1984.

Subscriber Line or Exchange Line

   A communication channel between a telephone station or PBX station and
   the central office which serves it.

Subtributary Office

   A class of tributary office which does not have direct access to its
   toll center, but which is connected to its toll center office by means
   of circuits which are switched through to the toll center at another
   tributary office.

Tandem Area

   The general areas served by the local offices having direct trunks to
   or from the tandem office. This area may consist of one or more
   communities or may include only a portion of a relatively large city.

Tandem Circuit or Trunk

   A general classification of circuits or trunks between a tandem central
   office unit and any other central office or switchboard.

Tandem Connection

   A call switched at a tandem office.

Tandem Office

   A central office unit used primarily as an intermediate switching point
   for traffic between local central offices within the tandem area. Where
   qualified by a modifying expression, or other explanation, this term
   may be applied to an office employed for both the interconnection of
   local central offices within the tandem area and for the
   interconnection of these local offices with other central offices,
   e.g., long haul tandem office.

Toll Center

   An office (or group of offices) within a city which generally handles
   the originating and incoming toll traffic for that city to or from
   other toll center areas and which handles through switched traffic. The
   toll center normally handles the inward toll traffic for its tributary
   exchanges and, in general, either handles the outward traffic
   originating at its tributaries or serves as the outlet to interexchange
   circuits for outward traffic ticketed and timed at its tributaries.
   Toll centers are listed as such in the Toll Rate and Route Guide.

Toll Center Area

   The areas served by a toll center, including the toll center city and
   the communities served by tributaries of the toll center.

Toll Center Toll Office

   A toll office (as contrasted to a local office) in a toll center city.

Toll Circuit

   A general term applied to interexchange trunks used primarily for toll
   traffic.

Toll Connecting Trunk

   A general classification of trunks carrying toll traffic and ordinarily
   extending between a local office and a toll office, except trunks
   classified as tributary circuits. Examples of toll connecting trunks
   include toll switching trunks, recording trunks and
   recording-completing trunks.

Toll Office

   A central office used primarily for supervising and switching toll
   traffic.

Traffic Over First Routes

   A term applied to the routing of traffic and denoting routing via
   principal route for traffic between any two points as distinguished
   from alternate routes for such traffic.

Operator System

   A stored program electronic system associated with one or more toll
   switching systems which provides centralized traffic service position
   functions for several local offices at one location.

Tributary Circuit

   A circuit between a tributary office and a toll switchboard or
   intertoll dialing equipment in a toll center city.

Tributary Office

   A local office which is located outside the exchange in which a toll
   center is located, which has a different rate center from its toll
   center and which usually tickets and times only a part of its
   originating toll traffic, but which may ticket or time all or none, of
   such traffic. The toll center handles all outward traffic not ticketed
   and timed at the tributary and normally switches all inward toll
   traffic from outside the tributary's toll center to the tributary.
   Tributary offices are indicated as such in the Toll Rate and Route
   Guide.

Trunks

   Circuit between switchboards or other switching equipment, as
   distinguished from circuits which extend between central office
   switching equipment and information origination/termination equipment.

TSPS Complex

   All groups of operator positions, wherever located, associated with the
   same TSPS stored program control units.

Weighted Standard Work Second

   A measurement of traffic operating work which is used to express the
   relative time required to handle the various kinds of calls or work
   functions, and which is weighted to reflect appropriate degrees of
   waiting to serve time.

Wide Area Telephone Service WATS

   A toll service offering for customer dial type telecommunications
   between a given customer station and stations within specified
   geographic rate areas employing a single access line between the
   customer location and the serving central office. Each access line may
   be arranged for either outward (OUT-WATS) or inward (IN-WATS) service
   or both.

Wideband Channel

   A communication channel of a bandwidth equivalent to twelve or more
   voice grade channels.

Working Loop

   A revenue producing pair of wires, or its equivalent, between a
   customer's station and the central office from which the station is
   served.

   [ 71 FR 65747 , Nov. 9, 2006]

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