A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ACCESS LINE A telephone circuit connecting a customer location to a public network switching centre

ACD Automatic Call Distribution - A method for dealing with large numbers of incoming calls, ensuring that every call is dealt with as quickly and efficiently as possible. Incoming calls are distributed between a number of answering positions. When all positions are busy, callers are placed in a queue and may receive a recorded announcement.

ACTs Advisory Committees on Telecommunications

ACTE Approval Committee for Terminal Equipment - an advisory body to the European Commission on the implementation of the Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Directive. It gives general guidance on the application of the Directive, and has the formal responsibility of adopting Common Technical Regulations which are binding on all member states.

ACOUSTIC COUPLER A form of low speed modem that sends and receives data using a conventional telephone handset, and not requiring a permanent connection to the line.

ADPCM Adapted Differential Pulse Code Modulation. A technique for converting a voice into digital signals.

AMPLIFIER Electronic device which boosts the strength of a signal.

AMPS Advanced Mobile Phone Service. A cellular system.

ANALOGUE An analogue signal is one which varies considerably with time, taking any value with certain limits. The human voice is an analogue signal, varying in both frequency and volume. In an analogue telephone system, the transmitted signal is a replica of the speech waveform.

ASA Advertising Standards Authority

ASAP Association of Social and Community Alarm Providers

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode.

AUTOMATIC DIALLER A device which will automatically dial telephone numbers on the network.

BABT British Approvals Board for Telecommunications. The UK evaluation and approvals authority for telecommunications equipment.

BANDWIDTH The quantity of spectrum required for a specific purpose.

BARRING A telephone facility which denies, or allows, selected users access to particular international, national and local public exchange codes.

BASE STATION A fixed radio transmitter/receiver which electronically relays signals to and from mobile voice and data terminals.

BAUD A term used to express the rating of equipment, or a transmission channel, in a communication system. The number of pulses that can be transmitted in a second is the Baud rate i.e. one baud is equivalent to 1 pulse per second.

BROADBAND NETWORKS Networks in which the bandwidth is split into multiple channels, enabling a number of simultaneous transmissions.

BSI British Standards Institute.

CA Consumers' Association - the UK's largest consumer organisation that seeks to empower people to make informed consumer decisions and to achieve measurable improvements in goods and services.

CAB Citizens Advice Bureau - CABs provide free, confidential, independent and impartial advice on every subject.

CABLE PTOs The companies licensed to provide telephony and broadcast television services within exclusive, local franchises in the UK.

CAG Communications Advisory Group

CALL BARRING A facility enabling a customer to prevent telephone calls to specified numbers being made.

CALL DIVERSION A network service that allows a customer to have the network redirect incoming calls to another number.

CALLER DISPLAY A service that allows customers to see the number from which someone is calling them before they answer the telephone.

CALLING CARD A service that allows calls made from a telephone to be billed to a different telephone or credit card account.

CALLING LINE IDENTIFICATION (CLI) Provides the called person with the number of the telephone from which an incoming call has been made. A customer with this facility would be able to see the number of the caller before they picked up the receiver.

CALL ROUTING APPARATUS Any equipment capable of switching two-way live speech telephone calls between two or more exchange lines and two or more extensions.

CALL WAITING A network service whereby a customer engaged on a call is given an indication that another call is attempting to reach the customer's number.

CATV Cable Television; formerly known as Community Access Television.

CCE Consumer Communications for England

CEPT Conference Europeenne des Administrations des Postes et des Telecommunications. An organisation of European PTOs.

CFB Communications for Business

CLI Calling Line Identity - A facility that enables identification of the number from which a call is being made.

CMA The UK Communications Managers Association.

CORDLESS TELEPHONE A telephone which uses a very short-distance radio connection to connect the user with a base station and thence to the public telephone network. The user can then make and receive calls anywhere within range of the base station.

CPS Carrier Pre Selection

DDA Disability Discrimination Act

DECT Digital European Cordless Telecommunications. A Europe-wide standard for digital mobile telephony, covering cordless PBXs, telepoints and home cordless telephony.

DGT Director General of Telecommunications

DIEL Advisory Committee on Telecommunications for Disabled and Elderly people

DIGITAL The coded representation of a waveform by, for example, binary digits in the form of pulses of light, as opposed to analogue which is the direct representation of a waveform.

DIRECT DIALLING IN A facility enabling outside callers to dial exchange line numbers which connect them direct to extensions on a PBX without the intervention of a PBX operator.

DTI Department of Trade and Industry - The DTI's purpose is to increase UK competitiveness and scientific excellence, generating substantial growth, good jobs, opportunities and enhanced quality of life for all.

DPD Data Protection Directive

EC European Commission

ECTRA European Telecommunications for Telecommunications Regulatory Affairs.

ELECTRONIC MAIL (email) A system which distributes computer-generated messages to ‘electronic mail boxes’, from which the recipient retrieves the message, when convenient, through a computer terminal, telex or fax equipment.

EPG's Electronic Programme Guides

EQUAL ACCESS The ability of a customer connected to one operator to choose to have their long-distance and international calls carried by that operator or by another operator, with no extra processes or procedures required if they choose that other operator rather than the operator to whom they are connected.

ERLANG A widely used unit of telecommunications traffic density.

ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute - has the primary responsibility within Europe for the production of telecommunications standards for pan-European applification.

EXCHANGE A building equipped so that telephone lines (exchange lines) terminating there may be interconnected as required. Exchange lines are also known as trunk lines.

EXTENSION A telephone, usually connected to PBX, which does not have direct access to the public network (such access will be via the PBX).

FACSIMILE (FAX) A system which provides a facility to transmit an exact copy of the image on a piece of paper form one location to another.

FCS Federation of Communication Services - the industry body for the mobile telecommunications industry.

FIBRE OPTICS A technology using light as a digital information bearer. Fibre optic cables are a direct replacement for conventional wire, coaxial cable and many forms of radio, including microwave. Offers superior quality, due to virtual immunity to electrical interference.

GSM Global System for Mobile Communications. A European standard for digital mobile cellular networks.

ICSTIS The Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services - regulates the content and promotion of premium rate telephone services.

INTERCONNECTION The connection of separate telecommunication networks.

INTERNET A global network of networks, mainly narrowband, accessed by users with a computer and a modem via a service provider.

INTEROPERABILITY The ability of different telecommunication networks and / or apparatus to work together to provide a seamless service for users.

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network. A public network conforming to internationally agreed standards, fully integrating digital transmission systems with digital switching systems. ISDN allows the integration of multiple services -voice, data, fax etc - over a common network interface and can provide a wide range of network-based supplementary services such as CLI, Call Park, Call Diversion etc.

ITC Independent Television Commission - licenses and regulates commercially funded television services in the UK.

LOCAL LOOP The local circuit connection between the customer and the customer’s nearest telephone exchange office.

MODEM A device used to connect digital consumer equipment to analogue telecommunication networks to enable the transmission of digital data via analogue transmission media.

NACAB National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux

NARROWBAND A service or connection allowing only a limited amount of information to be conveyed.

NCC National Consumer Council - NCC was set up by government in 1975. Its job is to identify the interests of consumers and speak up for them to the providers of goods and services of all kinds.

NETWORK INTERCONNECTION SERVICES Network services that are sold to other network operators.

NETWORK OPERATOR The operator of a telecommunication network with a Public Telecommunications Operator (PTO) licence, which provides, amongst other things, network services.

NIACT Northern Ireland Advisory Committee on Telecommunications

NUMBER PORTABILITY Number portability between operators enables a customer to transfer from one operator to a second operator and retain the same number provided the customer remains at the same address.

OFT Office of Fair Trading - set up in 1973 and headed by the Director General of Fair Trading, the OFT is a non-ministerial department of government with a range of legal responsibilities as the principle UK Fair Trading authority.

OFTEL Office of Telecommunications. The UK telecommunication watchdog.

OLO Other Licensed Operators.

On - line Where a customer is directly linked via a distribution network to a server thereby enabling him to interact with the server at any time.

OPEN ACCESS Where a network operator grants access to his network to any service provider who may reasonably request it.

OPTICAL FIBRE Constructed using glass, and now fast replacing copper cables, as the medium of transmission of electronic information, particularly in high traffic applications. Unlike copper, optical fibre uses light pulses for transmission and can only transmit information in a digital form.

PABX or PBX Private (Automatic) Branch Exchange. Customer premises equipment (switch), which provides for the transmission of calls to and from the public telephone network.

PAPs Publicly Accessible Payphones

PAY-PER-VIEW Payment made for a specific programme as opposed to say a monthly subscription for a whole channel or group of TV channels.

PCBs Public Call Boxes

PCN Personal Communications Network. The European digital cellular mobile telephone network, developed in accordance with GSM standards.

PERSONAL NUMBERING A service based on number translation which enables a customer to be called using a single 'personal' telephone number but to receive those calls at virtually any telephone number in the UK.

PRIVATE CIRCUIT A telecommunication link provided by a network operator for the exclusive use of the customer.

PRIVATE NETWORKS A telecommunications network on the customer's side of a network termination point, which forms the boundary between a public telecommunication system run under a PTO licence and the user's network, generally run under a Class Licence.

PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network. The complete network of interconnections between telephone subscribers, operated for public use by one of the licensed PTOs.

PTO Public Telecommunications Operator - Major operators who are so designated by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

PUAF Public Utilities Access Forum - an informal association of organisations concerned to address the difficulties people with low incomes face as consumers of electricity, gas, water and telephony.

PUBLIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS OPERATORS (PTO’s) Title of UK licensed public switched telephony service providers (eg BT, Vodafone etc).

RADIO SPECTRUM The range of wavelengths used, for example, for broadcasting radio, terrestrial television and satellite television.

SACOT Scottish Advisory Committee on Telecommunications

SELECTIVE CALL BARRING  The ability to programme a Public Switched Network access line, so that outgoing calls to certain related groups of numbers such as special charge rate, international or mobile services cannot be made.

SMARTCARD A plastic card incorporating a silicon chip. A user’s smartcard is programmed with his/her identity, personal telephone number and other information. It can then be used in any compatible terminal and the network will automatically route calls to it.

TACS Total Access Communications System.

TACs Telecommunications Advisory Committees. A network of committees throughout the UK.

TDM Time-division multiplexing. A process whereby a number of different channels can be transmitted over a common circuit by allocating the circuit to each channel in turn for a given period of time.

TDMA Time-division multiple access.

TDPD Telecoms Data Protection Directive

TELEMETRY A low-data-rate service used for network monitoring, call metering etc.

TELEX The public switched low-speed data network which is used worldwide for the transmission of administrative messages.

TERMINAL A device for sending and receiving data on a communications channel.

TEXT PHONE A device used by hearing and speech impaired people to communicate via the network with other customers, by means of an on-line translation service.

TINA-C Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture Consortium. An international body formed to define future network management standards for broadband networks.

TMN Telecommunications Management Network.

TRUNK NETWORK That part of the telecommunications network which provides connections between customer-serving exchanges.

TSL Telecommunications Systems Licence. A licence that must be held for every site where a call routing apparatus is connected to the public network. The TSL covers the PBX, branch system wiring and terminal equipment such as handsets.

TUA The UK Telecommunications Users Association.

USO Universal Service Obligation

VLV Voice of the Listener and Viewer an independent, non-profit making society which represents the citizen's voice in broadcasting and the principle of public service in broadcasting.

VPN Virtual Private Network.

VTN Virtual Text Network

WACT Welsh Advisory Committee on Telecommunications