As used in the New Mexico Telecommunications Act:

A. "affordable rates" means local exchange service rates that promote universal service within a local exchange area, giving consideration to the economic conditions and costs to provide service in such area;

B. "cable television service" means the one-way transmission to subscribers of video programming or other programming service and subscriber interaction, if any, that is required for the selection of such video programming or other programming service;

C. "commission" means the public regulation commission;

D. "competitive telecommunications service" means a service that has been determined to be subject to effective competition pursuant to Section 63-9A-8 NMSA 1978;

E. "competitive telecommunications service provider" includes competitive carriers holding certificates of public convenience and necessity issued by the commission pursuant to laws and regulations, including, without limitation, Section 63-9A-6 NMSA 1978;

F. "effective competition" means the competition that results from the customers of the service having reasonably available and comparable alternatives to the service, consistent with the standards set forth in Section 63-9A-8 NMSA 1978;

G. "fund" means the state rural universal service fund;

H. "incumbent local exchange carrier" means a person that:

(1) was designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier by the state corporation commission in Docket #97-93-TC by order dated October 23, 1997 or that provided local exchange service in New Mexico on February 8, 1996; or

(2) became a successor or assignee of an incumbent local exchange carrier;

I. "incumbent rural telecommunications carrier" means an incumbent local exchange carrier that serves fewer than fifty thousand access lines within the state and has been designated as an eligible telecommunications company by the state corporation commission or the public regulation commission;

J. "local exchange area" means a geographic area encompassing one or more local communities, as described in maps, tariffs or rate schedules filed with the commission, where local exchange rates apply;

K. "local exchange service" means the transmission of two-way interactive switched voice communications furnished by a telecommunications company within a local exchange area;

L. "message telecommunications service" means telecommunications service between local exchange areas within the state for which charges are made on a per-unit basis, not including wide-area telecommunications service, or its equivalent, or individually negotiated contracts for telecommunications services;

M. "noncompetitive telecommunications service" means a service that has not been determined to be subject to effective competition pursuant to Section 63-9A-8 NMSA 1978;

N. "private telecommunications service" means a system, including the construction, maintenance or operation thereof, for the provision of telecommunications service, or any portion of that service, by a person for the sole and exclusive use of that person and not for resale, directly or indirectly. For purposes of this definition, the person that may use such service includes any affiliates of the person if at least eighty percent of the assets or voting stock of the affiliates is owned by the person. If any other person uses the telecommunications service, whether for hire or not, the private telecommunications service is a public telecommunications service;

O. "public telecommunications service" means the transmission of signs, signals, writings, images, sounds, messages, data or other information of any nature by wire, radio, lightwaves or other electromagnetic means originating and terminating in this state regardless of actual call routing. "Public telecommunications service" does not include the provision of terminal equipment used to originate or terminate such service; private telecommunications service; broadcast transmissions by radio, television and satellite broadcast stations regulated by the federal communications commission; radio common carrier services, including mobile telephone service and radio paging; or one-way cable television service;

P. "telecommunications company" means a person that provides public telecommunications service;

Q. "wire center" means a facility where local exchange access lines converge and are connected to a switching device that provides access to the public switched network and includes remote switching units and host switching units; and

R. "wire center serving area" means the geographic area of a local exchange area served by a single wire center.

History: Laws 1985, ch. 242, § 3; 1987, ch. 21, § 2; 1998, ch. 108, § 60; 2004, ch. 3, § 1; 2017, ch. 71, § 1.

The 2017 amendment, effective June 16, 2017, defined "competitive telecommunications service provider", "incumbent local exchange carrier", incumbent rural telecommunications carrier", "wire center", and removed and revised the definitions of certain terms as used in the New Mexico Telecommunications Act; in Subsection A, after "exchange", deleted "service"; added a new Subsection E and redesignated former Subsections E and F as Subsections F and G, respectively; in Subsection F, after "means", added "the competition", after "that", added "results from", and added "consistent with the standards set forth in Section 63-9A-8 NMSA 1978"; added new Subsections H and I and redesignated former Subsections G through I as Subsections J through L, respectively; deleted former Subsection J, which defined "mid-size carrier", and redesignated Subsections K through N as Subsections M through P, respectively; and added Subsections Q and R.

The 2004 amendment, effective May 19, 2004, added a new Subsection J defining "mid-size carrier" and redesignated the succeeding subsections.

The 1998 amendment, effective January 1, 1999, substituted "that" for "which" throughout the section; substituted "public regulation" for "state corporation" near the beginning of Subsection C; in Subsection K, substituted "that" for "such", deleted "or entity" in four places, substituted "that" for "or entity which" near the middle, and substituted "if" for "or entity, provided that" near the end; deleted "but not limited to" preceding "services, including" in Subsection L; and rewrote Subsection M.

Subsection M encompasses high speed data transmission services. — High speed data transmission services fall within the scope of the definition of "public telecommunications service" in Subsection B (now Subsection M). Las Cruces TV Cable v. N.M. SCC, 1985-NMSC-087, 103 N.M. 345, 707 P.2d 1155.