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The Florida Senate

2025 Florida Statutes

Title XXX SOCIAL WELFARE
Chapter 427 SPECIAL TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES Entire Chapter
SECTION 703
Definitions.
F.S. 427.703
427.703 Definitions.—As used in this part:
(1) “Administrator” means a corporation not for profit incorporated pursuant to chapter 617 and designated by the Florida Public Service Commission to administer the telecommunications access system pursuant to this act and rules and regulations established by the commission.
(2) “Commercial mobile radio service” or “CMRS” means a mobile radio communications service, provided for profit, which is interconnected to the public switched network and is available to the public or to such classes of eligible users as to be effectively available to a substantial portion of the public. The term does not include services that do not provide access to 911 service, communication channels suitable only for data transmission, wireless roaming services or other nonlocal radio access line services, or private telecommunications systems.
(3) “Commission” means the Florida Public Service Commission.
(4) “Communications service” means a service provided to subscribers through wireline telecommunications equipment, interconnected VoIP, or CMRS.
(5) “Deaf” means having a permanent hearing impairment and being unable to discriminate speech sounds in verbal communication, with or without the assistance of amplification devices.
(6) “Deafblind” means having both a permanent hearing impairment and a permanent visual impairment and includes dual sensory impairment.
(7) “Deaf service center” means a center that serves, within a defined region, individuals with hearing loss or speech impairment or who are deafblind, by distributing equipment and providing services on behalf of the administrator.
(8) “Deaf service center director” means an individual who serves as the director for a deaf service center and is responsible for ensuring that individuals with hearing loss or speech impairment or who are deafblind are qualified to receive equipment or services in accordance with ss. 427.701-427.708, based on their impairment by attesting to such impairment as provided for in the procedures developed by the administrator.
(9) “Hard of hearing” means having a permanent hearing impairment which is severe enough to necessitate the use of amplification devices to discriminate speech sounds in verbal communication.
(10) “Hearing loss” or “having a hearing impairment” means deaf, late-deafened, or hard of hearing.
(11) “Interconnected voice-over-Internet protocol” or “interconnected VoIP” means a service that does all of the following:
(a) Enables subscribers to have real-time, two-way voice communications.
(b) Requires a broadband connection.
(c) Requires customer equipment compatible with Internet protocol.
(d) Allows subscribers to receive calls from and place calls to a public switched telephone network. The term does not include services that do not provide access to 911 service or private telecommunications systems.
(12) “Local exchange telecommunications company” means a telecommunications company certificated by the commission to provide telecommunications services within a specific geographic area.
(13) “Operating fund” means the fund established, invested, managed, and maintained by the administrator for the exclusive purpose of implementing and administering the provisions of this act pursuant to commission rules and regulations.
(14) “Regional distribution center” means an entity, including, but not limited to, a deaf service center or a provider of audiology services, which has contracted with the administrator to distribute equipment and provide services to qualified individuals with hearing loss or speech impairment or who are deafblind.
(15) “Regional distribution center director” means an individual qualified by the administrator who serves as the director for a regional distribution center and meets the standards for ensuring that individuals with hearing loss or speech impairment or who are deafblind are qualified to receive equipment or services in accordance 1with ss. 427.701-427.708, 2based on their impairment by attesting to such impairment as provided for in the procedures developed by the administrator.
(16) “Ring signaling device” means a mechanism, such as a flashing light, which visually indicates that a communication is being received through a telephone line. This term also means a mechanism such as an adjustable volume ringer and buzzer which audibly and loudly indicates an incoming telephone communication.
(17) “Specialized communications technology” means mobile devices, tablet computers, software, or applications that can be used to provide communications services to a hearing impaired, speech impaired, or deafblind person.
(18) “Specialized telecommunications device” means a TDD, a volume control handset, a ring signaling device, or any equipment that can be used to provide access to communications services for a person with hearing loss or speech impairment or who is deafblind.
(19) “Speech impaired” or “speech impairment” means having a permanent loss of verbal communication ability that prohibits normal usage of a standard telephone handset.
(20) “Surcharge” means an additional charge paid by local exchange telecommunications company subscribers pursuant to the cost recovery mechanism established under s. 427.704(4) in order to implement the system described herein.
(21) “Telecommunications access system” means the system administered pursuant to this section, and includes the administration of the telecommunications relay service system and the distribution of specialized telecommunications devices and specialized communications technologies pursuant to ss. 427.701-427.708 and rules and regulations established by the commission.
(22) “Telecommunications company” includes every corporation, partnership, and person and their lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, and every political subdivision of the state, offering two-way telecommunications service to the public for hire within this state by the use of a telecommunications facility. The term “telecommunications company” does not include an entity which provides a telecommunications facility exclusively to a certificated telecommunications company, or a specialized mobile radio service operator, a private radio carrier, a radio common carrier, a cellular radio telecommunications carrier, or a cable television company providing cable service as defined in 47 U.S.C. s. 522.
(23) “Telecommunications device for the deaf,” “TDD,” or “text device” means a mechanism that is connected to a communications network, operated by means of a keyboard, and used to transmit or receive signals through telephone lines or other communications service facilities.
(24) “Telecommunications facility” includes real estate, easements, apparatus, property, and routes used and operated to provide two-way telecommunications service to the public for hire within this state.
(25) “Telecommunications relay service” means any telecommunications transmission service that allows a person with hearing loss or speech impairment to communicate by wire or radio in a manner that is functionally equivalent to the ability of a person who does not have hearing loss or speech impairment. Such term includes any service that enables two-way communication between a person who uses a telecommunications device or other nonvoice terminal device and a person who does not use such a device.
(26) “Volume control handset” means a telephone which has an adjustable control for increasing the volume of the sound being produced by the telephone receiving unit or by the telephone transmitting unit.
History.—s. 1, ch. 91-111; s. 2, ch. 2025-148.
1Note.—The word “with” was inserted by the editors to conform to language elsewhere in the section.
2Note.—The word “based” was inserted by the editors to conform to language elsewhere in the section.