Glossary of Long Distance Service Related Terms

Pal Line

A public Access Line for PSP's.

Pats Line

A public Access Telephone Service Line for PSPs.

Pay-per-use Deny

Blocking of *66 (Busy Redial), *69 (Call Return), and 3-way calling that, if not added, would cause the applicable activation charges to appear on your PSP billing (not available in all areas at this time).

Payphone Access Fee

Under the 1996 Telecommunications Act, payphone operators must be compensated by long-distance operators for toll-free calls made through their phones. Most long distance companies pass this charge on to you on your long distance bill for calling card calls placed from a payphone or toll free calls received by you from a payphone. This is NOT a tax, and can vary from carrier to carrier. Our Calling Card Rates page includes the carrier specific payphone surcharge fee in its analysis.

Payphone Surcharge

Aka: National Access Fee, Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier Charge, Presubscribed Line Charge, Regulatory Related Charge, or Carrier Line Charge. Pronounced "pixie." This charge started on January 1, 1998 as part of the FCC overhaul of telephone fees. Long distance companies pay a flat fee to the local telephone company when you pre-subscribe your telephone line to their long distance service. (Sometimes referred to "Dial 1" or "Plus 1" service) The charge is designed to compensate the local telephone companies for the costs associated with providing "local loop" service. If a consumer or business has not selected a long distance company for its telephone lines, the local telephone company may bill for the PICC. Although every long distance company is charged the same flat rate per line, long distance companies are allowed to recharge you for this in any way they see fit, and each company uses a different method to charge this carrier specific fee. It is normally not presented to you in such a way that you would think it is a competitive pricing issue. But it is! Some companies do not charge this fee at all, and some charge a carrier specific flat fee. We offer full details of the amazing differences in this rate on the Fees Comparison page. This is NOT a tax. Please note that on July 1, 2000 the FCC ruled that long distance companies no longer will have to pay this fee to local companies for residential lines, or single line businesses. The charge continues for multiple line businesses. Many long distance companies are still charging you for this, even though they aren't paying it anymore!

Peak In-state/Out-of-state Rate

Peak Rate refers to what are considered the prime calling hours: between 7am and 7pm.

Per Call Compensation

Payment to PSP by carrier for each completed "dial around" call not otherwise compensated.

PIC - Primary Interexchange Carrier

The IEC that 1+ calls are routed to. Specified by an ANI.

PIC Charges

A LEC charge for changing the PIC. Often paid by the new IEC. If a LEC sends a PIC charge to a customer, the new IEC will typically credit the customer's account.

PIC Code

A unique identifying number assigned to each long distance provider. Your local telephone company uses this code to indicate who your long distance service provider is.

PIC Freeze

A PIC Freeze prevents the long distance from being switched for the specified ANIs. Useful to prevent slamming, or the unauthorized switching of long distance services.

PIC Request

A request record sent to a LEC asking for an ANI to be activated, deactivated or changed in some way.

PICC (PIC Charge)

Primary Interexchange Carrier Charge, also known as the Pre-Subscribed Interexchange Carrier Charge. The FCC-mandated flat-rate charge that applies to pre-subscribed IXCs connecting to end-users through LEC (local exchange carrier) facilities. This charge appears on the bill sent to you from your long distance carrier.

PICC - Aka: National Access Fee, Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier Charge, Presubscribed Line Charge, Regulatory Related Charge, or Carrier Line Charge.

Pronounced "pixie." This charge started on January 1, 1998 as part of the FCC overhaul of telephone fees. Long distance companies pay a flat fee to the local telephone company when you pre-subscribe your telephone line to their long distance service. (Sometimes referred to "Dial 1" or "Plus 1" service) The charge is designed to compensate the local telephone companies for the costs associated with providing "local loop" service. If a consumer or business has not selected a long distance company for its telephone lines, the local telephone company may bill for the PICC. Although every long distance company is charged the same flat rate per line, long distance companies are allowed to recharge you for this in any way they see fit, and each company uses a different method to charge this carrier specific fee. It is normally not presented to you in such a way that you would think it is a competitive pricing issue. But it is! Some companies do not charge this fee at all, and some charge a carrier specific flat fee. We offer full details of the amazing differences in this rate on the Fees Comparison page. This is NOT a tax. Please note that on July 1, 2000 the FCC ruled that long distance companies no longer will have to pay this fee to local companies for residential lines, or single line businesses. The charge continues for multiple line businesses. Many long distance companies are still charging you for this, even though they aren't paying it anymore!

Port CLEC

Alternative provider that has their own cable facilities but needs Verizon Central Office switching capabilities.

Portable Numbers

Portable numbers are all numbers in an NXX where portability is allowed. Numbers will be declared portable on an NXX basis.

Ported Numbers

Ported numbers are the subset of portable numbers that have actually been moved from the original switch (donor) to another switch (recipient).

POTS

Plain Old Telephone Service - Modification of Point of Termination? (e.g. "I want to make a pots change for my tollfree number," meaning I want to change where my tollfree number rings? Thanks, Kat_Mama)

Pre-Subscription

A local telephone company service that enables each subscriber to select one long distance carrier to use for interLATA and interLATA calls without having to dial a multiple-digit access code.

Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier Charge

Aka: National Access Fee, Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier Charge, Presubscribed Line Charge, Regulatory Related Charge, or Carrier Line Charge. Pronounced "pixie." This charge started on January 1, 1998 as part of the FCC overhaul of telephone fees. Long distance companies pay a flat fee to the local telephone company when you pre-subscribe your telephone line to their long distance service. (Sometimes referred to "Dial 1" or "Plus 1" service) The charge is designed to compensate the local telephone companies for the costs associated with providing "local loop" service. If a consumer or business has not selected a long distance company for its telephone lines, the local telephone company may bill for the PICC. Although every long distance company is charged the same flat rate per line, long distance companies are allowed to recharge you for this in any way they see fit, and each company uses a different method to charge this carrier specific fee. It is normally not presented to you in such a way that you would think it is a competitive pricing issue. But it is! Some companies do not charge this fee at all, and some charge a carrier specific flat fee. We offer full details of the amazing differences in this rate on the Fees Comparison page. This is NOT a tax. Please note that on July 1, 2000 the FCC ruled that long distance companies no longer will have to pay this fee to local companies for residential lines, or single line businesses. The charge continues for multiple line businesses. Many long distance companies are still charging you for this, even though they aren't paying it anymore!

Presubscribed Line Charge

Aka: National Access Fee, Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier Charge, Presubscribed Line Charge, Regulatory Related Charge, or Carrier Line Charge. Pronounced "pixie." This charge started on January 1, 1998 as part of the FCC overhaul of telephone fees. Long distance companies pay a flat fee to the local telephone company when you pre-subscribe your telephone line to their long distance service. (Sometimes referred to "Dial 1" or "Plus 1" service) The charge is designed to compensate the local telephone companies for the costs associated with providing "local loop" service. If a consumer or business has not selected a long distance company for its telephone lines, the local telephone company may bill for the PICC. Although every long distance company is charged the same flat rate per line, long distance companies are allowed to recharge you for this in any way they see fit, and each company uses a different method to charge this carrier specific fee. It is normally not presented to you in such a way that you would think it is a competitive pricing issue. But it is! Some companies do not charge this fee at all, and some charge a carrier specific flat fee. We offer full details of the amazing differences in this rate on the Fees Comparison page. This is NOT a tax. Please note that on July 1, 2000 the FCC ruled that long distance companies no longer will have to pay this fee to local companies for residential lines, or single line businesses. The charge continues for multiple line businesses. Many long distance companies are still charging you for this, even though they aren't paying it anymore!

Primary Interexchange Carrier

The long distance company that is automatically accessed when a customer dials 1+.

Private Branch Exchange

Telephone key system that is automatically or manually operated to serve extensions in a business complex and provide access to the public network.

Provisioning

The process by which a requested (ordered) service is designed, implemented and tracked (providing the subcomponent parts).

PUC - Public Utilities Commission

The agency regulating intrastate phone service.