Compliance Glossary
Twenty terms that appear in every telecom compliance conversation — CPNI, RMD, SPC token, Section 214, attestation, USAC — defined plainly and linked to the practice behind them.
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Knowledge Center
Telecom Compliance,Defined and Explained.
A reference library for telecom operators and executives: the terminology, the obligation landscape, and the guides behind each practice area. Written to make the regulatory environment legible — not to replace the judgement that resolving it requires.
Start Here.
The Obligation Landscape
What federal, state, and industry obligations exist, which are recurring, and which are triggered by business events rather than calendar dates — the category that produces most exposure.
Compliance Insights
Eighteen guides across six clusters explaining how each obligation works, how it goes wrong, and what is at stake when it does.
Who Regulates What
The FCC, USAC, the STI-PA, industry traceback bodies, and state commissions — who they are, what they administer, and where their requirements overlap.
Product Experience
Interact with EquiScore™, the Client Command Center™, and Sia Compliance K9™ before you engage.
Something Already Wrong?
Reference material has a limit. If a filing, notice, carrier question, or deadline is in front of you, the matter is handled directly and confidentially.
Telecom Compliance Glossary.
The vocabulary regulators, carriers, and acquirers use. Where a term maps to a practice or a guide, the definition links to it.
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- CPNICustomer Proprietary Network Information
- Data a carrier obtains about a customer by virtue of providing service — numbers called, services purchased, account configuration. Federal rules restrict its use, disclosure, and protection. What is CPNI.
- FRNFCC Registration Number
- The unique identifier assigned to an entity registered with the Commission. Referenced across filings, which is why an unmaintained FRN record creates inconsistencies elsewhere.
- Form 499-AAnnual Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet
- The annual filing reporting prior-year revenue for Universal Service Fund contribution purposes. What is Form 499A.
- Form 499-QQuarterly Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet
- The quarterly worksheet used to assess contributions during the year. Inconsistency between the quarterly and annual worksheets is a common review trigger.
- Interconnected VoIP
- Voice service allowing customers to place and receive calls to and from the public switched telephone network. The classification carries a range of federal obligations.
- OCNOperating Company Number
- An industry identifier for carriers. Referenced in voice authentication eligibility, which is why a stale OCN record surfaces as an unrelated-looking token failure.
- RMDRobocall Mitigation Database
- The FCC filing where voice providers certify authentication status and describe their mitigation program. The most externally visible compliance record most providers keep. RMD practice.
- Section 214Communications Act authorization
- Authority required before providing certain services — most commonly international telecommunications — and before discontinuing, transferring, or acquiring them. What is Section 214.
- SHAKENSignature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs
- The deployment profile applying STIR standards to SIP networks.
- SPC tokenService Provider Code token
- Issued by the STI Policy Administrator; establishes a provider’s eligibility to obtain signing certificates. Renewal failures usually trace to upstream record inconsistency.
- STI-PASecure Telephone Identity Policy Administrator
- The body administering provider eligibility within the caller ID authentication framework.
- STIRSecure Telephone Identity Revisited
- The standards set underpinning caller ID authentication. What is STIR/SHAKEN.
- AttestationA, B, or C
- The level at which an originating provider signs a call, asserting what it knows about the customer and their right to use the number. A factual assertion, not a configuration preference.
- Traceback
- An industry process tracing illegal or suspicious calls back through the call path to the originating provider. Response quality and documentation both matter.
- USACUniversal Service Administrative Company
- Administers the Universal Service Fund and uses Form 499 data to assess contributions.
- USFUniversal Service Fund
- The federal mechanism supporting universal communications access, funded by contributions assessed on reported revenue.
- PUCPublic Utility Commission
- State-level regulator. Many states impose registration, reporting, and fee obligations independent of federal requirements. State registration.
- Letter of InquiryLOI
- A Commission request for information opening a record. What is said early constrains everything afterward. What an inquiry tests.
- Consent decree
- An agreement resolving an enforcement matter, typically including a compliance plan, reporting obligations, and a payment. The operational commitments usually outlast the payment.
- EquiScore™EquiTel instrument
- EquiTel’s telecom compliance risk score, measuring exposure across regulatory readiness, operational strength, documentation position, and business risk. EquiScore.
Who Regulates What.
FCC
Federal Communications Commission.
- Registration and authorizations
- Caller ID authentication rules
- CPNI rules
- Robocall Mitigation Database
- Enforcement and inquiries
USAC
Universal Service Administrative Company.
- Universal Service Fund administration
- Form 499 collection
- Contribution assessment
- Contribution audits
STI-PA
Secure Telephone Identity Policy Administrator.
- Provider eligibility
- SPC token issuance
- Certificate authority approval
State PUCs
State public utility commissions.
- Intrastate registration and certification
- State reporting and fees
- State USF and surcharges
- Consumer protection rules
The Obligation Landscape.
Three categories, and they fail in different ways. The third is where most of the exposure we are asked to remediate originates.
01
Recurring
Arrive on a schedule and are noticed when missed.
- Annual and quarterly worksheets
- Annual certifications
- State annual reports
- Regulatory fees
02
Event-driven
Triggered by business actions, with no calendar date attached.
- Name, address, ownership changes
- New states or products
- Authentication status changes
- Transactions
03
Continuous
Conditions rather than filings. Nothing announces their failure.
- Certificate and token currency
- Mitigation program operation
- Authentication practice
- Recordkeeping
04
Why the split matters
Programs built only around the calendar cover one third of the landscape and leave the other two to be discovered externally.
Reference Gets YouOriented. Not Resolved.
The Knowledge Center exists to make the environment legible. When a specific obligation, filing, or notice needs to be resolved, that is practitioner work — and it starts with an assessment.