Glossary of Long Distance Service Related Terms

Facilities-Based Carrier

Any telecom company that owns facilities and equipment (such as poles, wires, cables and transmission facilities) that are used to provide service. AT&T, MCI/WorldCom, Sprint, Qwest, Broadwing and Level3 are examples of facilities-based carriers.

FCC - Federal Communications Commission

Regulates interstate communications: licenses, rates, tariffs, standards, limitations, etc. Appointed by U.S. President.

FCC Approved Customer Line Charge

Aka: Federal Access Charge, Customer Line Charge, Interstate Access Charge, Interstate Single Line Charge, FCC Approved Customer Line Charge, Subscriber Line Charge or SLC This federally ordered charge billed by your local telephone company pays part of the cost to the local telephone company of supplying a phone line into your home or business. It is designed to help local phone companies recover the cost of providing "local loops" which refers to outside telephone wires, underground conduit, telephone poles, and other equipment and facilities connecting you to the telephone network. This is NOT a tax. It is a charge that is part of the price you pay to your local telephone company. Neither the FCC nor any other government agency receives the Federal Subscriber Line Charge. The FCC places a maximum cap on this charge.

Federal Access Charge

Aka: Federal Access Charge, Customer Line Charge, Interstate Access Charge, Interstate Single Line Charge, FCC Approved Customer Line Charge, Subscriber Line Charge or SLC This federally ordered charge billed by your local telephone company pays part of the cost to the local telephone company of supplying a phone line into your home or business. It is designed to help local phone companies recover the cost of providing "local loops" which refers to outside telephone wires, underground conduit, telephone poles, and other equipment and facilities connecting you to the telephone network. This is NOT a tax. It is a charge that is part of the price you pay to your local telephone company. Neither the FCC nor any other government agency receives the Federal Subscriber Line Charge. The FCC places a maximum cap on this charge.

Federal Excise Tax

Aka: Federal Excise Tax. This tax appears on both your local and long distance phone bills. It is charged as a set percentage regardless of which telephone service provider you use. Little known fact is that it started as a temporary luxury tax in 1898 on telephone service to pay for the Spanish-American War. Now the proceeds go to the U.S. Treasury as general revenue, since the war is over. For more details on this tax, you can contact the Internal Revenue Service Excise Tax Branch.

Federal Subscriber Line Charge

Aka: Federal Access Charge, Customer Line Charge, Interstate Access Charge, Interstate Single Line Charge, FCC Approved Customer Line Charge, Subscriber Line Charge or SLC. This federally ordered charge billed by your local telephone company pays part of the cost to the local telephone company of supplying a phone line into your home or business. It is designed to help local phone companies recover the cost of providing "local loops" which refers to outside telephone wires, underground conduit, telephone poles, and other equipment and facilities connecting you to the telephone network. This is NOT a tax. It is a charge that is part of the price you pay to your local telephone company. Neither the FCC nor any other government agency receives the Federal Subscriber Line Charge. The FCC places a maximum cap on this charge.

Federal Tax

Aka: Federal Excise Tax. This tax appears on both your local and long distance phone bills. It is charged as a set percentage regardless of which telephone service provider you use. Little known fact is that it started as a temporary luxury tax in 1898 on telephone service to pay for the Spanish-American War. Now the proceeds go to the U.S. Treasury as general revenue, since the war is over. For more details on this tax, you can contact the Internal Revenue Service Excise Tax Branch.

Fiber

A term that is short for Fiber Optic cable. Fiber Optic cable is made of bundles of extremely pure glass capable of transmitting pulses of laser light extremely long distances. Fiber Optic Cable is the backbone for all modern telephone, data and Internet networks across the U.S.

Flat Rate

Local service for which customers pay a regular monthly charge for unlimited calls within a local area.

Flexible Automatic Number Identification (FlexANI)

A CO switch failure resulting from an FCC mandate in 1998. In general, FlexANI allows a central office switch to transmit additional two-digit codes identifying the line type to the IXC. These two-digit codes provide additional information that identifies the class of service associated with a telephone number. Carriers can order FlexANI to identify calls originating from (1) "dumb" payphones with switch-generated coin signaling, (2) "smart" payphones with coin signaling resident in the phone, and (3) inmate/detention facility payphones. It tells the IXC that a payphone originated the call, so the IXC can identify it was a payphone and pay per-call compensation(PCC) that maybe due for such calls. IXCs need to order FlexANI from the LEC if they want to receive FlexANI digits with their call records, as there are alternative, more manual ways an IXC can identify payphone-originated calls.