Definitions

For the purposes of this article the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:

Bottled gas: All types and kinds of natural, liquefied petroleum and manufactured gas for lighting, heating, cooking, power or any other purpose delivered to any purchaser thereof within the city.

Electricity: All electric current or energy for lighting, heating, cooking, power or any other purpose delivered to any purchaser thereof within the city.

Fuel oil: All bunker C oil, no. 1 and no. 2 fuel oil and kerosene or any combination thereof for lighting, heating, cooking, power or any other purpose delivered to any purchaser thereof within the corporate limits of the city.

Metered gas: All types and kinds of natural and manufactured gas for lighting, heating, cooking, power or any other purpose delivered to any purchaser thereof within the city.

Private communication service:

(1)

A communication service furnished to a subscriber or user that entitles the subscriber or user to exclusive or priority use of a communication channel or groups of channels, or to the use of an intercommunication system for the subscriber's stations, regardless of whether such channel, groups of channels, or intercommunication system may be connected through switching with a local telephone service, a teletypewriter or computer exchange service or a toll telephone service;

(2)

Switching capacity, extension lines, and stations or other associated services which are provided in connection with, and which are necessary or unique to the use of channels or systems described in subparagraph (1) of this definition; or

(3)

The channel mileage which connects a telephone station located outside a local telephone system area with a central office in such local telephone system.

Purchase as to all public services except telecommunications services: Every act or transaction whereby possession of, utilization of, control over or title to electricity, water, metered gas, bottled gas, or fuel oil, and the duty and obligation to pay therefor, become vested in the purchaser within the city.

Purchase within the municipality as to telecommunications services:

(1)

All local recurring service charges for services originating within the city; and

(2)

All charges for Florida intrastate telecommunications services, which charges are paid within the city upon receipt of service within the city or are billed to a telephone number within the city or a telecommunications or other billing number or device within the city; or

(3)

If the location of the telecommunications services provided cannot be determined, the total amount billed for such telecommunications services to a telephone or telephone number, a telecommunications number or device, or a customer's billing address located within the municipality.

Purchaser: Every person legally liable for the payment for electricity, metered gas, bottled gas or fuel oil delivered to him/her, or telecommunications service or water service rendered to him/her by a seller.

Seller: Every person delivering electricity, metered gas, bottled gas or fuel oil, or rendering telecommunications service or water service to any purchaser thereof.

Telecommunications service:

(1)

Local telephone service, toll telephone service, telegram or telegraph service, teletypewriter or computer exchange service, or private communication service; or

(2)

Cellular mobile telephone or telecommunications service, specialized mobile radio, and pagers and paging service, including but not limited to "beepers" and any other form of mobile and portable one-way or two-way communication, but does not include services or equipment incidental to telecommunications services enumerated in this paragraph such as maintenance of customer premises equipment, whether owned by the customer or not, or equipment sales or rental for which charges are separately stated, itemized, or described on the bill, invoice, or other tangible evidence of the provision of such service.

Teletypewriter or computer exchange service: The access from a teletypewriter, telephone, computer, or other data station of which such station is a part, and the privilege of intercommunication by such station with substantially all persons having teletypewriter, telephone, computer, or other data stations constituting a part of the same teletypewriter or computer exchange system, to which the subscriber or user is entitled upon payment of a charge or charges, whether such charge or charges are determined as a flat periodic amount, on the basis of distance and elapsed transmission time, or some other method. The term "teletypewriter or computer exchange service" does not include local telephone service or toll telephone service.

Toll telephone service:

(1)

A telephonic-quality communication for which there is a toll charge which varies in amount with the distance and elapsed transmission time of each individual communication; or

(2)

A service which entitles the subscriber or user, upon the payment of a periodic charge which is determined as a flat amount or upon the basis of total elapsed transmission time, to the privilege of an unlimited number of telephonic communications to or from all or a substantial portion of the persons having telephone or radio telephone stations in a specified area which is outside that local telephone system area in which the station provided with this service is located.

The term "toll telephone service" includes wide-area telephone service charges.

Water service: The water supply furnished to all consumers of the city by the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Authority (or department) for retail use and not for resale.

(Ord. No. 10263, § 1, 4-30-87; Code 1980, § 55-11; Ord. No. 13676, § 2, 4-27-17)