The telecommunications industry has developed jargon that even people in the industry find difficult to translate. With this in mind, here is an ever-expanding glossary of words, acronyms, abbreviations and product names that we have put together for our readers in a convenient, easily accessible format.

ACE	The ACE (Africa Coast to Europe) submarine communications cable is a planned cable system along the west coast of Africa between France and South Africa. The ACE submarine cable system is to be more than 14,000 km long, and to become operational in 2011 with a minimum capacity of 1.92 Tbit/s.
ADSL	Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line. ADSL is a form of DSL, a data communications technology, that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional modem can provide.
ATM	Asynchronous Transfer Mode. ATM is a cell relay network protocol which encodes data traffic into small fixed-sized (53 byte; 48 bytes of data and 5 bytes of header information) cells instead of variable sized packets (sometimes known as frames) as in packet-switched networks (such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet). It is a connection-oriented technology, in which a connection is established between the two endpoints before the actual data exchange begins.
Broadband	Broadband in telecommunications is a term, which refers to a signalling method which includes or handles a relatively wide range of frequencies which may be divided into channels or frequency bins. Broadband is always a relative term, understood according to its context. The wider the bandwidth, the more information can be carried. In data communications a modem will transmit a bandwidth of 64 kilobits per seconds (kbit/s) over a telephone line; over the same telephone line a bandwidth of several megabits per second can be handled by ADSL, which is described as broadband (relative to a modem over a telephone line, although much less than can be achieved over a fibre optic circuit, for example).
Carrier Pre-Select	Carrier pre-select is the process whereby a telephone subscriber whose telephone line is maintained by one company, usually a former monopoly provider, can choose to have some of their calls automatically routed across a different telephone company's network without needing to enter a special code or special equipment.
CDMA	Code Division Multiple Access. A protocol for wireless data and voice communication, CMDA is widely used in cellphone networks, but also in many other data communications systems.
Circuit-Switched	In telecommunications, a circuit switching network is one that establishes a dedicated circuit (or channel) between nodes and terminals before the users may communicate. Each circuit that is dedicated cannot be used by other callers until the circuit is released and a new connection is set up. Even if no actual communication is taking place in a dedicated circuit then, that channel still remains unavailable to other users. Channels that are available for new calls to be set up are said to be idle.
Cristal Vox™	Cristal Vox™ is a corporate voice solution from Vox Telecom. Cristal Vox™ offers a range of outbound and inbound voice services at competitive rates, bundled with a geographic number (e.g. 010, 021 and 031) and a unique rebate structure.
DOC	Department Of Communications. The South African government department responsible for management of the telecommunications industry.
DSL	Digital Subscriber Line. Generic name covering several different technologies for data transmission over fixed phone lines.
EASSy	The East African Submarine Cable System. This is an initiative of various telecom companies in eastern and southern Africa, but some governments have been working through the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) attempting to supervise its construction and management. The 9,900 km cable would run from South Africa up to Sudan. For more information go to www.eassy.org.
ECA	ECA (or EC Act) means the Electronic Communications Act (Act No. 36 of 2005).
Ethernet	Ethernet is a large and diverse family of frame-based computer networking technologies for local area networks (LANs).
ECS	Any service provided to the public, sections of the public, the State, or the subscribers to such service, which consists wholly or mainly of the conveyance by any means of electronic communications over an electronic communications network, but excludes broadcasting services.
ECNS	A service whereby a person makes available an electronic communications network, whether by sale, lease or otherwise: (a) for that person’s own use for the provision of an electronic communications service or broadcasting service; (b) to another person for that other person’s use in the provision of an electronic communications service or broadcasting service; or (c) for resale to an electronic communications service licensee, broadcasting service licensee or any other service contemplated by the Electronic Communications Act.
Eyeris™	Eyeris™ is a high-definition, hosted IP video conferencing system from Vox Telecom, offering high definition audio and video quality. The hosted IP bridge removes capital expenditure and enables multi-point, multi-access video conferencing.
Fax Server	A fax server is a set of software running on a server computer which is equipped with one or more fax-capable modems attached to telephone lines (or, more recently, software modem emulators which use "Fax over IP" technology to transmit the signal over an IP network). Its function is to accept documents from users, convert them into faxes, and transmit them, as well as to receive fax calls and either store the incoming documents or pass them on to users.
Fishbone™	Fishbone™ Line Bonder from Vox Telecom combines multiple independent access lines, through line aggregation technologies, into a single high capacity corporate access solution. It is a lower cost alternative to traditionally high-priced access technologies, such as diginet.
GSM	Global System for Mobile communications (GSM: originally from Groupe Spécial Mobile) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world, with its promoter, the GSM Association, estimating that the GSM service provides 82% of the global mobile market and is used by over 2 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories. Its ubiquity makes international roaming very common between mobile phone operators, enabling subscribers to use their phones in many parts of the world. GSM differs significantly from its predecessors in that both signaling and speech channels are digital call quality, and so is considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system.
Hosting	Hosting or Web Hosting. The process of physically locating a website on a physical server at a secure location, typically belonging to an ISP.
iBurst	iBurst is the name of a supplier of wireless internet services operating in the South African market.
ICASA	Independent Communications Authority of South Africa. This is the regulatory body responsible for oversight of the telecommunications industry. Similar to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the USA or Oftel in the UK.
I-ECNS Licence	Individual ECNS Licence – The ECNS licence comes in two variants, Individual and Class. The Class Licence restricts the Licensee to a geographical area, whereas the Individual Licence enables the Licensee to operate countrywide. The ECNS licence allows the licensee to provide ECNS services to its customers. See ECNS.
I-ECS Licence	Individual ECS Licence – The ECS licence also comes in two variants, Individual and Class. The Class Licence restricts the Licensee to a geographical area, whereas the Individual Licence enables the Licensee to operate countrywide. The ECS licence allows the licensee to provide ECS services to its customers. See ECS.
InfraCo	InfraCo (or Broadband InfraCo) is the name of the wholly-owned government parastatal that houses the broadband assets previously owned by Transnet and Eskom.
Interconnect Arrangement	An Interconnect Agreement is the process for physically connecting the networks of different telecommunications carriers that is typically governed by a legal agreement stipulating specific tariffs for terminating calls on each of the respective networks.
Internet	The Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet protocol (IP).
IP	Internet Protocol. A series of rules for communication among computers over the Internet.
ISP	Internet Service Provider. An Internet service provider is a business or organisation that sells to consumers or business access to the internet and related services.
IVR	Interactive Voice Response. The generic term for a machine (hardware and software on a server) that will interface to a phone line and provide an inbound caller to gather information about accounts, orders, etc. For example: Dial 1 for account balance.
LCR	Least Cost Routing. The methodology for routing a voice call over the route that costs the least, effectively taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities that exist relative to the prices charged by competing operators in a network.
Leased Line	A leased line is a symmetric telecommunications line connecting two locations together. Unlike traditional PSTN lines they do not have a telephone number, each side of the line being permanently connected to the other. They can be used for telephone, data or internet services.
Legogo™	Legogo™ from Vox Telecom provides access to Google Apps™ Premier edition. Legogo is a business tool that offers reliable, secure, online applications wherever people are, while reducing IT costs.
Local Loop Unbundling	Local loop unbundling (LLU or LLUB) is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange's central office to the customer's premises. The physical wire connection between customer and company is known as a "local loop", and it is owned by the incumbent local exchange carrier (also referred to as the "ILEC," "local exchange" or an Independent telephone company). In order to increase competition, competitors of the ILEC are granted unbundled access.
Local Number Portability	Local number portability (LNP) refers to the ability to transfer either an existing fixed-line or mobile telephone number assigned by a local exchange carrier (LEC) and reassign it to another carrier.
MaIN OnE	The MaIN OnE Cable is an undersea cable system expected to span 14,000 km and provide additional capacity for international and Internet connectivity to countries between Portugal and South Africa on the west coast of Africa.
MPLS	Multiprotocol Label Switching. In computer networking and telecommunications, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a data-carrying mechanism, which emulates some properties of a circuit-switched network over a packet-switched network. MPLS operates at an OSI Model layer that is generally considered to lie between traditional definitions of Layer 2 (data link layer) and Layer 3 (network layer), and thus is often referred to as a "Layer 2.5" protocol. It was designed to provide a unified data-carrying service for both circuit-based clients and packet-switching clients, which provide a datagram service model. It can be used to carry many different kinds of traffic, including IP packets, as well as native ATM, SONET, and Ethernet frames.
MTR	Mobile Termination Rates (MTR) are the charges which one telecommunications operator charges to another for terminating calls on its network. Termination may take place on a fixed or mobile network and may be symmetric (operators pay equal amounts to each other) or asymmetric (one operator, usually the incumbent, pays less than the other operator).
NBIN	NEPAD Broadband Infrastructure Network is a South African government initiative driven by the Department of Communications (DOC) to provide a regional fibre optic network incorporating terrestrial and sea components.
Open Source	Open source is a set of principles and practices that promote access to the design and production of goods and knowledge. The term is most commonly applied to the source code of software that is available to the general public with relaxed or non-existent intellectual property restrictions. This allows users to create software through incremental individual effort or through collaboration.
OSI	The Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model (OSI Reference Model or OSI Model for short) is a layered, abstract description for communications and computer network protocol design, developed as part of the Open Systems Interconnection initiative. It is also called the OSI seven-layer model.
Packet-Switched	Packet switching, in computer networking and telecommunications, is the now-dominant communications paradigm in which packets (units of information carriage) are routed between nodes over data links shared with other traffic. This contrasts with the other principal paradigm, circuit-switching which sets up a dedicated connection between the two nodes for their exclusive use for the duration of the communication. Packet switching is used to optimize the use of the bandwidth available in a network, to minimise the transmission latency (i.e. the time it takes for data to pass across the network), and to increase robustness of communication.
PABX/PBX	A Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) is an automatic telephone switching system within a private enterprise. Originally, such systems - called private branch exchanges (PBX) - required the use of a live operator. Since almost all private branch exchanges today are automatic, the abbreviation "PBX" usually implies a "PABX.
POP	Point of Presence. A point-of-presence (POP) is an artificial demarcation point or interface point between communications entities.
PSTN	The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is the concentration of the world's public circuit-switched telephone network in much the same way that the Internet is the concentration of the world's public IP based packet-switched networks. Originally a network of fixed-line analogue telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and now includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.
SNO	Second Network Operator. The term SNO has been used in the South African context to refer to the second fixed line telecom operator to be licensed after Telkom. The SNO is now known as Neotel.
QoS	Quality of Service. A measure of the level of service quality provided by a telecommunications provider or device. If a router, for example, can provide QoS functionality, it can be programmed or tuned to deliver voice packets ahead of data packets and provide a better voice quality.
SEACOM	The SEACOM marine cable system: The planned 13,000 km undersea fibre optic network will provide connectivity between South Africa, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, India and Europe. Owned by the American Heracles Telecom, SEACOM’s planned commissioning date is the first quarter of 2009. The SEACOM cable system is being designed with a nominal capacity of 1,280 Gb/s comprised of two fibre pairs expected to connect South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania and Kenya to India and Europe (with an option for UAE). For more information go to www.seacom.mu
Spectrum	The range of electromagnetic radio frequencies used in the transmission of sound, data and television.
TEAMS	The East African Marine System, Teams will be owned by the Kenya Government (up to 40%), while Etilsat of the United Arab Emirates will hold a 20% stake. Private investors - yet to be secured - will hold 40%. The cable will run from Fujairah in the UAE to Mombasa, Kenya.
Telepreneur™	Derived from a combination of telecommunications and entrepreneur, Telepreneur™ is designed to capture the innovative and entrepreneurial personality of the business.
Unbundling	The term used to describe the access provided by local exchange carriers so that other service providers can buy or lease portions of its network elements, such as interconnection loops, to serve subscribers.
VANS	Value Added Network Services. A term used to refer to other alternative, telecommunications service providers, generally known as VANS licensees that provide telephony services to the telecommunications market.
VoIP	Voice Over Internet Protocol. VoIP is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP based network.
VOX	Latin for voice
VOX Populi	Voice of the people.
VPN	Virtual Private Network. A service that links a company’s local and telecom networks with the computers and phones of employees who work remotely, forming a telecom or data communications network that looks to users like a single business network.
WACS	WACS (West Africa Cable System) is a planned submarine communications cable linking South Africa with the United Kingdom along the west coast of Africa. The cable is expected to land in the following African countries: South Africa, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde as well as the Canary Islands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. The landings in Namibia, the DRC, the Republic of Congo and Togo will provide the first direct connections for these countries to the global submarine cable network. The design capacity of WACS is at least 3.84 Tbps.
WIMAX	WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access. It is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard, which is also called Wireless MAN. WiMAX allows a user, for example, to browse the Internet on a laptop computer without physically connecting the laptop to a wall jack. The name WiMAX was created by the WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformance and interoperability of the standard. The forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL."
WLAN	Wireless Local Area Network. A link created between two or more computers or devices without using wires.