As used in the Oklahoma Telecommunications Act of 1997:
1. "Access line" means the facilities provided and maintained by a telecommunications service provider which permit access to or from the public switched network or its functional equivalent regardless of the technology or medium used;
2. "Administrative process" means an administrative application process which allows eligible local exchange telecommunications providers and eligible providers to request funding and an administrative submission process that allows Oklahoma Universal Service Fund Beneficiaries to submit a preapproval request directly with the Administrator. Both of the administrative processes shall not require an order from the Commission to determine eligibility for, allocate or disburse funds unless a request for reconsideration is filed;
3. "Administrator" means the Director of the Public Utility Division of the Corporation Commission;
4. "Broadband", as used in Section 139.202 of this title, means those services and underlying facilities that provide access to and from the Internet of continuous speeds of at least twenty-five (25) megabits per second (Mbps) downstream, from the provider to the customer, and continuous speeds of at least three (3) megabits per second (Mbps) upstream, from the customer to the provider, using fixed, terrestrial facilities, including, but not limited to, wireless, copper wire, fiber-optic cable, or coaxial cable, to provide such service. The minimum Internet speeds listed in this paragraph shall be subject to change or update when, or if, the Federal Communications Commission makes new rulings related to its definition of broadband;
5. "Commission" means the Corporation Commission of this state;
6. "Competitive local exchange carrier" or "CLEC" means, with respect to an area or exchange, a telecommunications service provider that is certificated by the Commission to provide local exchange services in that area or exchange within the state after July 1, 1995;
7. "Competitively neutral" means not advantaging or favoring one person or technology over another;
8. "Consortium" means, as used in Section 139.109.1 of this title, two or more Oklahoma Universal Service Fund Beneficiaries that choose to request support under the Federal Universal Service Support Mechanism or successor program or programs as a single entity;
9. "Contributing providers" means providers, including but not limited to providers of intrastate telecommunications, providers of intrastate telecommunications for a fee on a non-common-carrier basis, providers of wireless telephone service and providers of interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Contributing providers shall contribute to the Oklahoma Universal Service Fund and Oklahoma Lifeline Fund. VoIP providers shall be assessed only as provided for in the decision of the Federal Communications Commission, FCC 10-185, released November 5, 2010, or such other assessment methodology that is not inconsistent with federal law. Entities exempt from contributing to the Federal Universal Service Support Mechanisms are also exempt from contributing to the Oklahoma Universal Service Fund and Oklahoma Lifeline Fund consistent with 47 C.F.R., Section 54.706(d). The term "contributing providers" may be modified to conform to the definition of contributors as defined by the FCC if adopted by the Commission, after notice and hearing;
10. "Eligible entity" means any terrestrial Internet service provider willing to go into unserved or underserved areas, as determined by the Rural Broadband Expansion Council mapping. The eligible entity shall provide at least the minimum broadband speeds pursuant to paragraph 4 of this section;
11. "Eligible health care entity" means a not-for-profit hospital, county health department, city-county health department, not-for-profit mental health and substance abuse facility or Federally Qualified Health Center in Oklahoma. Eligible health care entity shall also include telemedicine services provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections at facilities identified in Section 509 of Title 57 of the Oklahoma Statutes;
12. "Eligible local exchange telecommunications service provider" means ILEC, CLEC and commercial radio mobile service provider as those terms are used in the Oklahoma Telecommunications Act of 1997;
13. "Eligible provider" means, for purposes of Special Universal Services, providers of telecommunications services which hold a certificate of convenience and necessity and OneNet;
14. "End User Common Line Charge" means the flat-rate monthly interstate access charge required by the Federal Communications Commission that contributes to the cost of local service;
15. "Enhanced service" means a service that is delivered over communications transmission facilities and that uses computer processing applications to:
16. "Exchange" means a geographic area established by an incumbent local exchange telecommunications provider as filed with or approved by the Commission for the administration of local telecommunications service in a specified area which usually embraces a city, town, or village and its environs and which may consist of one or more central offices together with associated plant used in furnishing telecommunications service in that area;
17. "Facilities" means all the plant and equipment of a telecommunications service provider, including all tangible and intangible real and personal property without limitation, and any and all means and instrumentalities in any manner owned, operated, leased, licensed, used, controlled, furnished, or supplied for, by, or in connection with the business of any telecommunications service provider;
18. "Federally Qualified Health Center" or "(FQHC)" means an entity which:
19. "Federal Universal Service Support Mechanism" is the support program established by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 47 U.S.C., Section 254(h). The program includes support for schools, libraries and health care providers;
20. "Funding year" means, for purposes of administering the Oklahoma Universal Service Fund, the period of July 1 through June 30;
21. "High speed Internet access service" or "broadband service" means, as used in Section 139.202 of this title, those services and underlying facilities that provide upstream, from customer to provider, or downstream, from provider to customer, transmission to or from the Internet in excess of or at a constant download speed of twenty-five (25) megabits per second (Mbps) and in excess of or at a constant upload speed of three (3) megabits per second (Mbps), regardless of the technology or medium used, including, but not limited to, wireless, copper wire, fiber-optic cable, or coaxial cable, to provide such service;
22. "Hospital" means a health care entity that has been granted a license as a hospital by the State Department of Health for that particular location;
23. "Incumbent local exchange telecommunications service provider" or "ILEC" means, with respect to an area or exchanges, any telecommunications service provider furnishing local exchange service in such area or exchanges within this state on July 1, 1995, pursuant to a certificate of convenience and necessity or grandfathered authority;
24. "Installation charge" means any charge for a nonrecurring service charged by an eligible provider necessary to initiate Special Universal Services. Installation charges may not exceed the cost which would be charged for installation, if the cost were not being paid for by the OUSF;
25. "Interexchange telecommunications carrier" or "IXC" means any person, firm, partnership, corporation or other entity, except an incumbent local exchange telecommunications service provider, engaged in furnishing regulated interexchange telecommunications services under the jurisdiction of the Commission;
26. "Internet" means the international research-oriented network comprised of business, government, academic and other networks;
27. "Local exchange telecommunications service" means a regulated switched or dedicated telecommunications service which originates and terminates within an exchange or an exchange service territory. Local exchange telecommunications service may be terminated by a telecommunications service provider other than the telecommunications service provider on whose network the call originated. The local exchange service territory defined in the originating provider's tariff shall determine whether the call is local exchange service;
28. "Local exchange telecommunications service provider" means a company holding a certificate of convenience and necessity from the Commission to provide local exchange telecommunications service;
29. "Not-for-profit hospital" means:
30. "Not-for-profit mental health and substance abuse facility" means a facility, not for the sole purpose of administration, which is operated by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services or a facility certified by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services as a Community Mental Health Care Center, a Community-Based Structured Crisis Center or a Community Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Center;
31. "Oklahoma High Cost Fund" means the fund established by the Commission in Cause Nos. PUD 950000117 and 950000119;
32. "Oklahoma Lifeline Fund" or "(OLF)" means the fund established and required to be implemented by the Commission pursuant to Section 139.105 of this title;
33. "Oklahoma Universal Service Fund" or "(OUSF)" means the fund established and required to be implemented by the Commission pursuant to Section 139.106 of this title;
34. "Oklahoma Universal Service Fund Beneficiary" means an entity eligible to receive Special Universal Services support as provided for in subsection A of Section 139.109.1 of this title;
35. "Prediscount amount" means the total cost of Special Universal Services, selected pursuant to the procedures set out in paragraph 5 of subsection B of Section 139.109.1 of this title, before charges are reduced by federal or state funding support. The prediscount amount shall not include fees or taxes;
36. "Person" means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, governmental entity, public or private organization of any character, or any other entity;
37. "Primary universal service" means an access line and dial tone provided to the premises of residential or business customers which provides access to other lines for the transmission of two-way switched or dedicated communication in the local calling area without additional, usage-sensitive charges, including:
38. "Public library" means a library or library system that is freely open to all persons under identical conditions and which is supported in whole or in part by public funds. Public library shall not include libraries operated as part of any university, college, school museum, the Oklahoma Historical Society or county law libraries;
39. "Public school" means all free schools supported by public taxation, and shall include grades prekindergarten through twelve and technology center schools that provide vocational and technical instruction for high school students who attend the technology center school on a tuition-free basis. Public school shall not include private schools, home schools or virtual schools;
40. "Regulated telecommunications service" means the offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public where the rates for such service are regulated by the Commission. Regulated telecommunications service does not include the provision of nontelecommunications services, including, but not limited to, the printing, distribution, or sale of advertising in telephone directories, maintenance of inside wire, customer premises equipment, and billing and collection service, nor does it include the provision of wireless telephone service, enhanced service, and other unregulated services, including services not under the jurisdiction of the Commission, and services determined by the Commission to be competitive;
41. "Served area" means an area or region with access to broadband at or above a defined transmission speed threshold as described in paragraph 4 of this section;
42. "Special Universal Services" means the telecommunications services supported by the OUSF which are furnished to public schools, public libraries and eligible health care entities as provided for in Section 139.109.1 of this title;
43. "Tariff" means all or any part of the body of rates, tolls, charges, classifications, and terms and conditions of service relating to regulated services offered, the conditions under which offered, and the charges therefor, which have been filed with the Commission and have become effective;
44. "Telecommunications" means the transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user's choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received;
45. "Telecommunications carrier" means a person that provides telecommunications service in this state;
46. "Telecommunications service" means the offering of telecommunications for a fee;
47. "Telemedicine service" means the practice of health care delivery, diagnosis, consultation and treatment, including but not limited to the transfer of medical data or exchange of medical education information by means of audio, video or data communications. Telemedicine service shall not mean a consultation provided by telephone or facsimile machine;
48. "Underserved area" means an area or region that has Internet service at speeds higher than those that meet the definition of an unserved area, but lower than those service speeds of high-speed Internet;
49. "Universal service area" has the same meaning as the term "service area" as defined in 47 U.S.C., Section 214(e)(5);
50. "Unserved area" means an area or region in which there is not at least one provider of terrestrial broadband service that is either:
51. "WAN" means a wide-area network that exists over a large-scale geographical area. A WAN connects different smaller networks, including local area networks and metro area networks, which ensures that computers and users in one location can communicate with computers and users in other locations;
52. "Wire center" means a geographic area normally served by a central office;
53. "Wireless Internet service provider" or "WISP", as used in Section 2 of this act, means a fixed wireless access provider that uses point-to-point microwave or millimeter-wave links between its towers for coverage extension and backhaul and point-to-multipoint links from the towers to the customer premises; and
54. "Wireless telephone service" means radio communication service carried on between mobile stations or receivers and land stations and by mobile stations communicating among themselves and which permits a user generally to receive a call that originates or terminates on the public switched network or its functional equivalent regardless of the radio frequencies used.
Added by Laws 1997, c. 408, § 2, eff. July 1, 1997. Amended by Laws 1998, c. 246, § 9, eff. Nov. 1, 1998; Laws 2001, c. 98, § 1, emerg. eff. April 16, 2001; Laws 2002, c. 80, § 2, eff. July 1, 2002; Laws 2014, c. 182, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2014; Laws 2014, c. 245, § 1, emerg. eff. May 9, 2014; Laws 2016, c. 270, § 3, emerg. eff. May 9, 2016; Laws 2021, c. 548, § 1, emerg. eff. May 28, 2021.