A Telecommunications Dictionary

It seems awfully bold to call this a telecommunications dictionary rather than a glossary, but technically speaking (no pun intended), we will include items that may or may not appear somewhere in our site, so to be more precise, what we're attempting here is a bit more like a dictionary than a glossary.

I've been present in many meetings over the years, where sales reps, either for phone equipment or IT services or business telephone services (we're all guilty really) just hammered away with technical jargon. Maybe this is a subconscious attempt at impressing the audience, but it isn't helpful at all.

Mostly, people just want to have a frame of reference for features and functionality so they can understand whether or not a solution will help their business. They don't want to be burdened or bored with anything else.

It can be just as frustrating for someone to explain technical telecommunications terms or concepts by just telling you what an acronym stands for or by using even more technical language . . .

Pretty awful. DTMF, by the way, is basically Touch Tone sound & signaling - the beeping tones you hear when you press the number buttons on a phone's dial pad.

But back to the point. We expect our telecommunications dictionary will grow in size and scope over time, and we also hope that you will provide feedback, particularly if you find that a definition is unclear or confusing - that obviously defeats the purpose of indexing telecom terms in the first place.

This section will never be exhaustive, but we will strive to first include more common communication terms as well as technical terminology referred to around this site. If there is something missing that you believe should be included please let us know.