Have you ever come across a set of initials or a specific term on your telephone bill and wondered just what it was? We've compiled a list of the most common terms and abbreviations along with defi nitions and explanations of exactly what they are in hopes of helping you to better understand your MonCre Telephone Company and your telephone bill.

PSC: Public Service Commission The state agency whose Telecommunications Divi sion oversees the regulation of telecommunications service in Alabama. This division is composed of the Economic Analysis and Compliance, Service Analysis and Compliance, and Special Services Compliance sections. The APSC does not regulate cellular telephone service.

RUS: Rural Utilities Service RUS provides many programs for financing rural America's telecommunications infrastructure. The "traditional" infrastructure loan program, consisting of hardship, cost of money, Rural Telephone Bank, and guaranteed loans, as well as financing of broadband and other advanced services.

NTCA: National Telephone Cooperative Association The National Telecommunica-
tions Cooperative Association is a non-profit association representing more than 560 small and rural telephone cooperatives and commercial companies with a highly effective government affairs program as well as expert legal and industry representation. MonCre's membership in the NTCA allows them to participate in a program to provide benefits such as group insurance packages and retirement benefits to its employees.

NECA: National Exhange Carriers Association An organization created by the Federal Communications Commission in 1984 to file interstate access tariffs on behalf of local exchange carriers and to manage the various access revenue pools. On a temporary basis, NECA also collects and distributes monies for the Universal Service Fund and the Lifeline Program. This responsibility will be taken over by NECA's subsidiary, the Universal Service Administrative Company, in the near future.

FRS: Foundation for Rural Service Through its programs and initiatives, the Foundation for Rural Service (FRS) calls attention to rural challenges, goals and achievements and educates the public on exactly why providing service in rural America is so unique.

FRS: is committed to educational achievement in rural communities, recognizing that tomorrow's economic and civic development depends on the involvement and commitment of today's youth.

The Switch: Nortel DMS10 Digital The heartbeat of your telephone company. Every service that MonCre offers originates from this important piece of equipment.

DSL: Digital Subscriber Line Telecommunications companies are meeting demands for high-speed remote access to the Internet and corporate networks with the deployment of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology. DSL provides a high-speed connection to the Internet and corporate intranets, and has unlimited opportunities for "information on demand" while facilitating improved online shopping, video gaming and telecom muting experiences, to name a few.

CABS: Corner Access Billing The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandates that all telecommunications carriers whose facilities are used to provide long distance service are entitled to a share of the compensation paid for that service. This revenue helps the local company to provide facilities over which the long distance company can provide calls to its customers. Both the access billing process itself and the tools for tracking and calculating the bills are known as Carrier Access Billing and referred to in the industry by the acronym CABS.

FUSC: Federal Universal Service Charge The amount MonCre pays to the Federal Universal Service Fund. This fund is maintained to ensure that all consumers have access to tele-communications services at reasonable prices. The fund also assists schools libraries low-income and rural health care consumers in obtaining telecommunications services.

AACS: Alabama Access Calling Service Bundled services with 2 or more in the same package.

Alabama Relay: Alabama Relay provides a full telephone interpreting service between people who can hear and those who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf-blind or speech-disabled. Communications Assistants (CA) have computers that enable them to hear the voice users as well as read the signals from the TTY (text telephone device) users.

Carrier: A telecommunications provider who owns switch equipment.

PIC: Primary Interexchange Carrier The IEC that 1+ long distance calls are routed to.

IEC: Interexchange Carrier A company providing long-distance phone service