This is a List of telephony terminology and acronyms which relate to telephony networks.
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B[]
- Blue box - a device that was used to bypass the normal long distance call switching tones typically used to obtain free calls.
C[]
- call originator - (or calling party, caller or A-party) a person or device that initiates a telephone call by dialling a telephone number.
- call waiting - a system that notifies a caller of another incoming telephone call by sounding a sound in the earpiece.
- called party
- Caller
- calling party
- conference call (multi-party call)
- COCOT
E[]
- emergency telephone number
- end instrument
- Engset calculation
- Erlang unit
F[]
- fax - (contraction of facsimile) a device connected to the telephone network to enable documents to be scanned and sent to a receiving fax machine.
H[]
- Handoff
- Handover
- help desk
- Hunt Group
I[]
- infrastructure
- interactive voice response (IVR)
L[]
- line
- local loop
- long-distance operator
O[]
- operator assistance
P[]
- person-to-person
- Pupinization
- Plain old telephone service, or "POTS"
R[]
- red telephone box
- Red box
- ringer equivalency number (REN)
- Ringing signal
- rural radio service
S[]
- Smartphone
- station-to-station
T[]
- Tandem switch
- telemarketing
- telephone
- telephone booth
- telephone call
- telephone card
- telephone directory
- telephone exchange
- telephone tapping
- Teletraffic engineering
- trap and trace
- TWX
V[]
- vertical service code
- voicemail
W[]
- Western Union
- Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS)
- WATS line
- wireless network
- Wi-Fi
Z[]
- Zenith number
Acronyms[]
| Acronym | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1ESS | Number 1 Electronic Switching System | US |
| 1FR | Flat rate service | US |
| 2G | second-generation mobile telephone | |
| 2.5G | Enhanced 2G mobile telephone | |
| 3G | third-generation mobile telephone | |
| 4WTS | Four-wire termination set | US |
| ACD | Automatic Call Distribution/Director | |
| ACTS | Advanced Coin Telephone Service | US |
| ADSL | Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line | |
| ANI | Automatic Number Identification | US |
| AMA | Automatic Message Accounting | US |
| BOK | Unblocking | UK |
| CCIS | Common Channel Interoffice Signaling | |
| CID | Caller ID | |
| CLI | Caller Line Identification | Europe |
| CLID | Caller Line ID | UK |
| CTI | Computer telephony integration | |
| COSMOS | Wire records | |
| DDCO | Direct Dial Central Office (Opposite of DID) | US |
| DDD | Direct Distance Dialing | US |
| DDI | Direct Dialing In | UK |
| DECT | Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications | |
| DID | Direct Inward Dialing | US |
| DMS | Digital Multiplex System | Can |
| DNIS | Dialed Number Identification System | US |
| DSL | Digital Subscriber Line | |
| DTMF | dual-tone multi-frequency | |
| FDM | Frequency-division multiplexing | |
| GPRS | General Packet Radio Service | |
| GSM | Global system for mobile communications | |
| IDDD | International Direct Distance Dialing | US |
| ILEC | Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier | US |
| ISD | International Subscriber Dialling | UK and India |
| ISDN | Integrated Services Digital Network | |
| IVR | interactive voice response | |
| MDF | Main Distribution Frame | |
| MF | Multi-frequency | US |
| PABX | Private Automatic Branch eXchange | Europe |
| PBX | Private Branch eXchange | US |
| PMBX | Private Manual Branch eXchange | UK |
| POTS | plain old telephone service | |
| PSTN | Public Switched Telephone Network | |
| RCMAC | Recent Change Memory Administration Center | US |
| REN | ringer equivalency number | |
| SMS | Short Message Service or text messages | |
| SF | Single Frequency supervision tone (2600) | US |
| SP Lock | Unlocking | UK |
| SS7 | Signaling System 7 | |
| STD | Subscriber trunk dialling | UK and India |
| T-CXR | T-carrier | US |
| TAPI | Telephony Application Programming Interface | |
| TSPS | Traffic Service Position System | |
| TXE | Telephone eXchange Electronic | UK |
| UAX | Unit Automatic eXchange | UK |
| WAP | Wireless Application Protocol | |
| WATS | Wide Area Telephone Service | US |
| WTAI | Wireless Telephony Applications Interface | |
| VOIP | Voice over Internet Protocol |