Arbitrage: Purchase of securities on one market for immediate resale on another market in order to profit from the price discrepancy.
Authentication: Process of verifying with certainty the identity of a valid subscriber or ITSP through use of unique user identification number, password or other method (i.e., verifying that customers are who they say they are).
Authorization: Process of allowing a Subscriber or ITSP a certain monetary credit or time amount of IP Telephony. Authorization is the granting of permission to provide users the service they are requesting.
Bandwidth: Amount of data that can pass through a connection (such as a modem) in a given amount of time.
Bit: Smallest data unit that a computer handles.
Call Data Record (CDR): Record of a placed call. A CDR includes the time the call was placed and the duration of the call.
Callback company: Provides a service that allows overseas callers to take advantage of the lower international rates available in the United States. The overseas caller makes a brief (approximately a few seconds) call to a number in the U.S.; this number calls back to the overseas location and gives a second dial tone. The caller then enters the destination phone number.
Calling card: Another means of paying for telephone calls. The caller dials an access number, uses a PIN (personal identification number) for identification, and then places the call.
Choppiness: Circumstance in which a caller?s words are intermittently cut off, creating a situation of gaps in the voice transmission. Choppiness makes it difficult or impossible to have a ?normal? conversation.
Clipping: Situation where the system cuts off the first part of the first word in a sentence. (Not to be confused with choppiness ? which is a packet loss).
Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC): Companies that compete on a selected basis for local exchange service, long-distance, international Internet access, and entertainment (i.e., cable TV).
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI): Extension of computer-based intelligence and processing over the telephone network to a telephone. CTI lets you interact with computer databases or applications from a telephone. It also enables computer-based applications to access the telephone network. Computer telephony makes computer-based information readily available over the worldwide telephone network from your telephone.
Design Layout Record (DLR): Official design of an inter-connection.
Gateway: Device that connects two different kinds of networks and performs the translations required for them to communicate with each other.
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM): European protocol used for encoding digital cellular phone transmissions.
H.323: Emerging Internet telephony standard.
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN): Phone line service whose technology offers more bandwidth more economically; it is therefore better suited for Internet telephony and video applications. ISDN uses multiple channels for data and voice.
Interactive Voice Response System (IVR): Automated voice response system to guide callers through a series of routine steps. For example, voice mail prompts you to leave a message or the monetary balance on a pre-paid calling card.
Interexchange Carrier (IXC): A telephone company that is allowed to provide long-distance telephone service between LATAs.
International Telecommunications Union (ITU): Organization in Geneva that evaluates and approves proposed standards for making telecommunications products work together.
Internet: Short for Internetwork. The Internet is a network of networks that enables end-users to transmit and receive audio and visual communications across a variety of interconnections.
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): Internet communications standards body.
Internet Protocol (IP): Main protocol (i.e., set of rules that formulates the foundation of communication) that controls data flow from one point to the another. It is actually the low-level common denominator of the Internet.
Internet Service Provider (ISP): Company that offers its customers accesses to the Internet.
Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP): Company that offers its customers the ability to make phone calls over the public Internet.
Jitter: Difference in arrival time of packets sent at the same time but traveling different routes.
Latency: Extent of delay that network components inflict on packets traveling through the network.
Letter of Agency (LOA): Document that authorizes a customer (or its local loop carrier) to install a T1 line.
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP): An Internet standard for Internet telephony products that access directory servers.
Local Area Network (LAN): Number of computers connected together to form one network.
Local Exchange Carrier (LEC): The local phone companies that can be either a Bell Operating Company or an independent that traditionally had the exclusive, franchised right and responsibility to provide local transmission and switching services.
Local Loop Provider (LLP): Company that offers other companies accesses to a telephone switch.
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): Letter between two parties outlining the parameters of an agreement.
Network Access Points (NAP): Connection points between different networks.
Packet loss: Loss of parts of the packetized data that comprises the whole communication.
Packetization: Breaking down of data that a computer sends into smaller pieces (known as packets). Each packet has a header that identifies the packet and its destination. The packet travels through routers to its destination computer, which reassembles all the packets that belong together and then sends this reconstituted data to the appropriate program.
Personal Identification Number (PIN): Security codes that callers use to access their accounts.
Point of Presence (POP): Location where an ITSP will offer origination or termination services.
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP): Means to access the Internet using dial-up connections.
Provisioning: Setting out to obtain a piece of equipment or service from another provider. In other words, you are buying something.
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN): The regular, ?old-fashioned? telephone network
Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP): Protocol that improves Internet telephone calls by adding special information to the voice data packets to help programs reassemble them more efficiently.
Refile: Situation in which a call is sent from an international location to the United States to be re-sent to another international location. This is done to take advantage of the U.S.?s lower international rates. By refiling, the company receives a better rate than calling direct from one international location to another.
Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC): Bell operating companies set up after the AT&T divestiture.
Routers: Switches that direct traffic through the Internet.
Router Hop: As data packets are carried over the Internet, they pass through various transfer points managed by a router on the way to their destination. Each transfer is called a ?router hop.? As the number of router hops increases, the potential for delay increases. This may manifest in dropouts or ?echo? in voice calls that are carried over the Internet.
ROW: Rest Of the World.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL): Encrypted communications path between two computers.
Serial Line Interface Protocol (SLIP): Way to access the Internet using dial-up connections.
System Management Network Protocol (SMNP): Piece of equipment?s ability to be remotely monitored
T.120: A standard that governs multi-point data conferencing and collaboration.
Telco: Telephone company
Termination gateway: The computer equipment configured with certain hardware and software, which provides the electronic ?bridge? from an IP network to the PSTN to connect to the destination telephone.
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): More reliable protocol for monitoring the control of data -- because it checks data at the destination to ensure that all packets are received. If any are missing, TCP resends them.
Trunk, trunk group: Number of phone lines grouped together going to the same place.
Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART): Chip that controls the serial port.
User Datagram Protocol (UDP): A protocol similar to TCP; however, it does not check data at the receiving end to ensure that all the packets have arrived, and doesn?t re-send missing data.
Value Added Reseller (VAR): Company offering services other than the core service. For example, a company who sells computers and offers training, service, and on-going maintenance is considered a VAR.
Vocoder: Also known as coder. Compresses a digital signal and then decompresses it.
Wide Area Network (WAN): Number of computers connected together to form one network over several locations. For example, if VITCOM had a location in California the company?s computers would be on a WAN forming a VITCOM network.
