Telecommunications Glossary

Analog Port or Device:  A device that is not digital, it transmits or uses electronic signals that are not data, but are like sound waves traveling to stereo speakers or standard telephone lines. Fax machines, cordless phones, home phones, credit card machines and modems are analog devices.

Central Office:  AKA – wire center.  This is a building in your local area where all of the telephone lines come to.  This is the central building where all of the telephone dial tone comes from.  The ILEC or RBOCs maintain the central office (CO).

CLEC:  Competitive Local Exchange Carrier.  They build or rebuild their own local loops, wired, or wireless.  They also lease local loops from ILECS or RBOCS at wholesale rates for resale to end-users.

Computer Network Cabling:  A data cable that contains 4 pairs of twisted wires in a common jacket, referred to as 10/100 or gigabit cable, Cat5E, 6 or Ethernet.

CAT 3:  Performance for inside wire and cable systems.  22 or 24 gauge wire that supports up to 16 MHz.  Applications that might use CAT 3 are POTS, ISDN, and T-1.

CAT 5:  Performance for inside wire and cable systems.  Can be a variety of gauges and can support up to 100 MHZ.  CAT 5 is now the most common cabling being installed for LAN connectivity.

CAT 6:  Performance for inside wire and cable systems.  Can support up to 250 MHZ.

DID Number (Direct Inward Dialing Number):  The ability for a caller outside a business to call an internal phone extension without having to go through the operator, receptionist, or auto attendant.  DID’s are most commonly used with PRI’s or Digital Trunk T1’s.

DS3:  This is equals 28 individual T1’s.  The signaling rate or speed rate of a DS3 is almost 45Mbps.  Another name for a DS3 is a T3.

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line):  Provided by ILECS, RBOCS, and CLECS.  It designed to allow high-speed data communication over the existing copper telephone lines between end-users and telephone companies.

DSLAM:  Is the device that produces a variety of DSL types.  This would be located in the central office.

Fiber Optics:  Light is used to transport data from one point to another.  Fiber Optics are “paper” thin pieces of glass through which light beams are transmitted that carry large amounts of data.

Ecommerce:  Electronic commerce.  This is buying, selling, and trading over the Internet.  If you have a business on the web that sells a product, and consumers purchase it, this would be an example of Ecommerce.  A popular Ecommerce site is EBay.

Employee Monitoring:  The ability of a telephone set, or group of phone users to monitor the conversations of others for legitimate purposes, without any sign of intrusion what so ever. Typically this is used in a call center environment.

ILEC:  Incumbent local exchange carrier, which is the main phone carrier within a certain geographical area.

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network):  2 choices (BRI or PRI).  BRI’s transmit data at speeds of 144,000 bps and is useful if you can’t get DSL or Cable modem service.  The most common BRI application would be video conferencing.  PRI’s can transmit data at speeds of 1,544,000 bps and are designed for telephone systems.  PRI’s can handle up to 23 simultaneous voice conversations at once.  DID’s are used on PRI’s.

Interconnect:  Business Telecom Advisors is a interconnect company.  We sell, install and maintain telephone systems for business customers.

Internet Access:  The process that end users connect to the Internet.  This happens through an ISP (Internet Service Provider).

KSU:  Key service unit, this is the main box/cabinet that contains all of the equipment, memory, and switching technology to run a telephone system.

LAN:  Local area network, this is a network of computers, printers, workstations, or servers that are in a business office.  These devices are all connected using computer cable, typically CAT 5 or CAT 6.

LATA:  Local access and transport area, or service areas by which telephone companies service.  There is 196 LATA’s in the U.S.  Local telephone companies may offer its services (local service, long distance, and DSL) in a LATA.

LEC:  Local exchange carrier or local telephone company.

Line:  A circuit from a service provider that has dial tone on it and a telephone number.  In the telecom world a line can be referred to as a loop.

LOA (Letter of Agency):  A letter that you give Business Telecom Advisors or a agent/partner of Business Telecom Advisors that will allow us to represent you and act on your behalf.

MAC:  Moves, Adds, or Changes.  Services that are not free to customers after the sale, which require moving phones or equipment to new locations, changing the way the system works or its size.

Network:  A network connects computers, telephones, and fiber optics all together.

Off Hook Voice Announce:  The ability to call from one system telephone to another, via the press of a button, with the ability of the called party to respond to the caller by merely speaking toward the phone, (hands free) while still on the phone to another party.

Patch Panel:  A component that connects all of your CAT 5, CAT 5e, or CAT 6 computer cabling together.  This is usually found near your Internet connection or your communications closet.

Patch Cord:  A short cable with RJ45 connectors on the end of each side of the cable that joins communication circuits together.  You would put 1 end into a port on the patch panel and the other end into your network switch or hub.

PBX (Private Branch Exchange):  A PBX is a much smaller version of the telephone company’s larger telephone switching equipment that provides dial tone and features. 

Point-to-Point:  A dedicated (private) circuit that links 2 parties together.  Can be used for voice or data and most commonly provisioned by 2 T1’s.

Port:  A place on a KSU to connect a line or system or analog phone or device.  Machines that have ports are telephone systems, computers, hubs, routers, switches, etc…

POTS:  Plain old telephone service; standard single telephone lines.  They typical telephone line that we all have used.

PSTN:  Public switched telephone network.  The PSTN correlates with your local and long distance services.  This also includes International calling.

“Quadruple Play”:  Is a telecom marketing term, mostly used by cable and telephone companies that offer 4 services.  Those services are Internet, telephone service, video (cable service), and wireless (cell phones).

RBOC:  Regional bell operating company.  There are 4 RBOC’s in the U.S. today (Verizon, Qwest, SBC, and BellSouth).

Station:  A phone or device, which can be used in conjunction with a telephone system. A station is usually a digital phone made specifically for a brand of phone system.  AKA – telephone extension.

Sixty-Six (66) Block:  This is where all your telephone system and telephone lines terminate too.  It can hold 12 4 pair cables (CAT 3 or CAT 5) or they can hold 2 25 pair cables.

Surge Protection:  Devices that protect systems from surges on power lines and or phone lines, no equipment warranties protect against these, many devices work very well against surges.

T1 Circuit:  A digital communications circuit, which can handle speeds of 1.54Mbps (download and upload).  A single T1 can handle voice or data, or both.  It has 24 channels for voice or data. Each channel is 64Kbps.

Telecommunications Act of 1996:  On February 8, 1996 a federal act was signed to promote competition of telephone companies.  This act made telephone companies lower rates and give companies better service.

“Triple Play”:  Is a telecom marketing term mostly used by cable and telephone companies that offer 3 services over a high speed Internet connection.  Those services are Internet, telephone service, and video (cable service).

Trunk:  1 transmission channel or port that are between 2 locations that are switching centers.  Central office trunks connect a PBX to the telephone switching equipment at the central office.

Voice Line:  A circuit that carries human speech.

VPN:  Is a virtual private network, which is a secure way to transmit data between your business offices.  Your business can have locations across the globe and you can use a VPN.  This could replace frame relay and point-to-point circuits in some applications.

Voice Over IP (VOIP):  Is used to transmit voice calls over an Internet connection using Internet Protocol (IP).

WAN:  A wide area network, a data or voice network spread out through a geographically area.