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Pair |
| Two wires of a circuit. |
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Payphone Surcharge |
| Long-distance companies are required to reimburse payphone operators $.24 for each toll-free and calling card call originating from a payphone. In turn, long distance companies may charge that or an additional fee to their customers for such calls. |
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Payphone |
| A public (or private) telephone that accepts coins or encoded credit cards. |
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Pbx (Private Branch Exchange) |
| The PBX is a private switching system located on the customer's premises for the exclusive use of that business |
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Pcs |
| (Personal Communications Services) Two-way, 1900 MHz digital voice, messaging and data service designed as the second generation of cellular. The FCC allocated the PCS spectrum in 1993 to increase competition in the mobile phone industry. The introduction of PCS added six possible new PCS players in most markets, which had previously been limited to 2 cellular companies. |
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Peak Rate |
| Maximum rate, in kilobits per second, at which a virtual circuit can transmit. |
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Peak-Rate |
| The time between 7am and 7pm in the U.S. on weekdays. (6am and 6pm in some countries). |
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Peak |
| The hours of heaviest use of a switch (system). Usually, peak rates are available between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. |
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Pedestal |
| Base on which a roadside cable terminal box is mounted. |
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Person-To-Person |
| Operator assisted phone call - only billed if the specified person is available. |
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Physical Medium |
| A transmission medium such as wire, cable, or optical fiber-used as the conduit for sending communications to their destinations. |
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Pic (Primary Interexchange Carrier) |
| The subscriber's long distance company of choice, where 1+ traffic or long distance calls are routed by the local exchange carrier to the Interexchange Carrier in equal access areas. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Pic Request |
| A request record sent to a LEC asking for an ANI to be activated, deactivated or changed in some way |
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Pic Response |
| A response record sent by a LEC (corresponding to a previous PIC Request) with a response code that indicates whether the request was performed. (Some LECs return non-standard PIC Response codes.) |
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Plain Old Telephone Service |
| (POTS) Refers to a single business or residential dial-tone line. |
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Plant |
| General term for all equipment used by a telephone company in providing telecommunications services. |
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Poi |
| Point of Interconnection |
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Point-To-Point |
| Non-switched, dedicated communication circuit |
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Pop |
| Part of Population. One pop equals one person. In the cellular industry, systems are valued financially based on the population of the market served. |
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Port |
| To move a telephone number or telephone service from one provider to another. Used here as a verb - To port the number over... |
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Pot (Point Of Termination) |
| Demarcation point within a customer-designated premises at which the telephone company's responsibility for the provision of access service ends |
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Pre Paid Cellular |
| Refers to a service offered by wireless carriers that allows subscribers to pay in advance for wireless service. |
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Pre-Paid Calling Card |
| A calling card that allows users to pre-pay for long distance calls placed from any telephone. An allotted number of minutes may be purchased and usage for each call is deducted from the total amount until the total allotment on the card is used. |
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Pre-Subscribed Line Charge |
| Refers to a monthly fee that may be applied to route calls to a long distance company. Different long distance companies give various names to this charge, such as Carrier Line Charge, National Access Fee and Presubscribed Line Charge. Such charges are not mandated, but imposed at the discretion of each carrier. |
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Pri (Primary Rate Interface) |
| An ISDN trunk interface often used by long distance carriers for dedicated access lines. The ISDN equivalent of a T- 1 circuit. |
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Private Line Service |
| A direct channel dedicated to the exclusive use of the customer from point A to point B. |
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Private Line |
| A private or dedicated line that has a constant transmission path from one location to another. A private line may be leased or owned |
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Private Network |
| A communications network with restricted (controlled) access. Usually made up of private lines |
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Provisioning |
| Providing telecommunications service |
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Pstn - Public Switched Telephone Network |
| An interexchange network set of connections created by a combination of equipment, transmission media and the people who maintain them. This ensures a call can travel from point A to point B. It is referred to as public because it is available to anyone making a call, as long as the caller is willing to pay. |
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Public Network |
| A switched communications network with unrestricted access |
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Public Service Commission |
| State body charged with regulating intra-state telecommunications services (also called the PUC). |
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Puc (Public Utility Commission) |
| State body charged with regulating intra-state telecommunications services (also called the PSC). |
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Pushbutton Dialing |
| Also called Touch-tone dialing, it uses standard tone combinations to indicate numbers being entered. |
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Pvc |
| (Permanent Virtual Circuit) A feature of frame relay that increases the flexibility of the network technology. This software-defined logical connection allows users to define the logical connections and required bandwidths between end points. This allows the frame relay network technology to determine how the physical network will achieve the defined connections and manage traffic. |
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