In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Person" means any natural person, firm, association, corporation, business trust, partnership, federal agency, state or political subdivision, or agency thereof, or any body politic.

(2) "Member" means each incorporator of a cooperative and each person admitted to and retaining membership therein and includes a husband and wife admitted to joint membership.

(3) "Articles of incorporation" means the articles of conversion of a corporation converted to a telephone cooperative pursuant to Article 8 of this chapter.

(4) "Telephone cooperative" means a corporation which is financed, now or formerly, in whole or in part by the Department of Agriculture made under the provisions of the Rural Electric Act of 1936, Title 26, Section 922 of the United States Code, and acts amendatory thereto for the purposes of owning or operating in this State equipment or facilities for the transmission of intelligence through a communication service system including, but not limited to, telephone services, mobile radio, and cable television on a cooperative basis as is tax exempt pursuant to Internal Revenue Service Code 501(c)(12) or an association of like corporations exempt from tax pursuant to 501(c)(6), or operated under a cooperative basis pursuant to Subchapter T of the Internal Revenue Code and originally incorporated pursuant to Title 33, Chapter 45 of the South Carolina Code of Laws or this chapter.

(5) "Telephone service" means the providing of communication service including, but not limited to, the transmission of voice, sounds, signals, pictures, writing, or signs of all kinds through the use of electricity or the electromagnetic spectrum between the transmitting and receiving apparatus, together with any communication services requiring band-width capacity, community antenna, and cable television services and including all lines, wires, radio, lights, electromagnetic impulse and all facilities, systems, or other means used in the rendition of such services, but not including message telegram service or radio broadcasting services or facilities within the meaning of Section 3(o) of the Federal Communications Act of 1934, as amended (47 USC Section 153(o)).

HISTORY: 1994 Act No. 392, Section 1.