Telecom and VOIP Glossary of Terms

2G: Second generation digital wireless systems that primarily provide voice capability, but can also support data at rates of 9.6 to 14.4 kilobits per second.

3G: Third generation wireless network designed for data and voice with speeds of 144 kilobits per second up to 2 megabits per second.

ABI guidelines: Guidelines from the Association of British Insurers, whose member companies account for almost 20 per cent of investments in the London stock market.

Activation: Initiation of a service for a customer, such as initial switch on for a new subscriber, or addition of services subsequently requested, such as call waiting.

ARPG: Average revenue per group such as in a family plan.

ARPU: Average revenue per user. One of the key performance indicators used by telcos.

ASP: Application service provider. Service provider that delivers applications to customers from data centres across a wide area network. Also referred to as bureau services.

BSS: Business support systems. BSS are the key software systems used by a communications service provider (CSP) principally to manage the revenue generation process. Typical BSS include mediation, charging & rating, interconnect (wholesale) billing, retail billing and customer management.

Bug: Problem with software that causes errors in system functions (e.g. system crashing). Can often be fixed with a patch.

Bundled services: Services that are grouped and sold in a package. (see bundling).

Bundling: Offer of multiple services together in a package often giving discounts for packaged services. Designed to entice the customer away from competitors and maintain loyalty.

Bureau services: See ASP.

CABS: Carrier access billing system. Software application also known as integrated access billing system (IABS) that enables local exchange carriers to measure minutes of access to collect revenue from the inter-exchange carriers.

Carrier: A telecommunications company that offers its services to the public; typically files tariffs that are equally applied to all consumers.

CDR: Call detail record. A network record that includes details about calls, such as type, time, duration, originator and destination. Can be used for network monitoring, accounting and billing. Also know as EDR (event data record), especially when applied to next generation services such as downloads rather than traditional telephone calls.

Churn: Term used in telecommunications denoting customer turnover for a variety of reasons; cited as a major cost to providers.

Clearinghouse: Third-party entity that handles financial clearing and settlements between carriers.

Convergence: Concept of carrying multiple traffic types (e.g. voice, data, video) on one Internet protocol-based network and then capturing information about use for convergent billing; designed to allow more efficient use of a network than circuit switching.

CRM: Customer relationship management. How a company handles its relationship with customers, either in practice or by using CRM software.

CSP: Communication service provider. Business that delivers fixed telecoms, Internet, mobile and/or contact services to customers.

CSR: Customer service representative. Carrier representative who deals with the consumer for order services, handling troubles or discrepancies in billing records.

EDRs: See CDRs.

IMS: IP multimedia subsystem. NGN architecture for provisioning of mobile and fixed multimedia services; run over IP.

Interconnection: Interoperability of traffic over multiple networks; interconnection fees are those settlements made between carriers for transporting others’ traffic on its network.

Interoperability: Ability to use the parts or equipment of another, exchange information and operate in diverse networking environments.

IP: Internet protocol. Protocol responsible for delivering individual data packets to their end destination by tracking the Internet address of the sender and receiver.

IPO: Initial public offering. When a company is floated, becoming a public limited company (plc), and its shares are traded on a stock exchange.

IPTV: Television broadcast via the Internet.

ITU: International Telecommunications Union. International organisation among UN-affiliated countries, through which private sector government representatives create communications standards.

Mediation: System that gathers usage information from a telecom network, processes that information and distributes it to other relevant systems.

Middleware: Software that allows several other software systems to work together easily; its name comes from the notion that it sits in the middle of several software programs.

MMS: Multimedia messaging service. Third generation wireless messaging technology that includes text, sounds, images and video using Internet standards for messaging.

MVNO: Mobile virtual network operator. Wireless reseller that buys network capacity from existing wireless carriers to brand and sell its own services, including value-added services. See VNO.

NGN: Next generation networks. Networks based on emerging technologies.

NGOSS: Next generation operations support systems. Designed to outline a service provider’s business and architecture requirements.

OSS: Operations support systems. OSS are the key software systems used by a communications service provider (CSP) principally to support the provision of services to the customer and to manage network assets. Typical OSS include inventory management, service activation, provisioning and order management.

Pre-paid: Usage-based service which is paid for in advance and expires once the established amount is reached.

Post-paid: Practice of billing for a service after it has been consumed.

Provisioning: Process by which a requested service is designed, installed and tracked for a particular customer.

POTS: Plain old telephone service. Basic telephone lines connecting most residential and small business users to the public switched telephone network.

Quadruple play: Voice, video and data or broadband Internet service combined with mobile phone service and delivered as a bundled service offering.

Rating: The process by which a telecom provider applies the price to service used; performed by a system called a rating engine.

Rating engine: System that marries information about network usage for a specific user and applies the associated cost to that usage.

RBOC: Regional Bell operating company. The major regional holding companies in the US that resulted from the 1984 AT&T divestiture.

Recurring charge: Charge applied regularly for a product or service.

Settlements: Transactions between two service providers in which one provider bills another for carrying network traffic or delivering other activities; see interconnection.

TCO: Total cost of ownership. Calculation of the various economic, accounting and financial benefits and costs associated throughout the life of owning and operating a hardware component, software application or information systems that a business may acquire.

Telco: Public telephone company.

Tier 1, tier 2, tier 3: Classification system used to denote the size of a telco based on the number of subscribers and the company’s reach within the telecommunications industry where tier 1 refers to large carriers, and tiers 2 and 3 respectively refer to smaller carriers.

Traffic: Volume of activity on a network (e.g. the number of calls on a voice network or the amount of data travelling over an Internet protocol network).

Triple play: Voice, video and data or broadcast Internet service combined and delivered as a bundled service offering. See quadruple play.

VNO: Virtual network operator. Reseller that buys network capacity from existing carriers to brand and sell its own services, including value-added services. See MVNO.

VoIP: Voice over Internet protocol. Method of providing voice telephone service digitally using Internet protocol packets rather than the traditional circuit-switched method used in the public
switched telephone network (PSTN); more cost effective than the PSTN.

Wireless phone services: Another name for mobile phone services.