| Payphone | A public (or private) telephone that accepts coins or encoded credit cards. |
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| Person-to-Person | Operator assisted phone call - only billed if the specified person is available. |
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| PIC - Primary Interexchange Carrier | The IEC that 1+ calls are routed to. Specified by ANI. |
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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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| PICC | 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 |
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| Point Of Presence - POP | The physical access location interface between a local exchange carrier and an Interexchange Carrier fiber network. The point to which the telephone company terminates a subscriber's circuit for long distance service or leased line communications. |
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| Point-To-Point | Non-switched, dedicated communication circuit. |
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| POP - (See Point Of Presence) | |
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| POTS - Plain Old Telephone Service | |
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| Primary Interexchange Carrier | The long distance company that is automatically accessed when a customer dials 1+. |
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| Private Line | Uses dedicated circuits to connect customer's equipment at both ends of the line. Does not provide any switching capability (unless supported by customer premise equipment). Usually includes two local loops and an IEC circuit. |
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| Provisioning | The process by which a requested (ordered) service is designed, implemented and tracked (providing the subcomponent parts). |
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| PUC - Public Utilities Commission | The agency regulating intrastate phone service. |
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