When the time comes to expand or move your business, you’ll have to address your company’s telecommunication needs.
If you’re like the rest of America, you’ve either added a laundry list of new acronyms to your vocabulary, or terms such as IXC, ISDN, CLEC, RBOC and PBX make you cringe in fear and confusion.
In the old days, a company shopping for business-to-business telephone services had no choice for its provider — AT&T was the only option. The federal government changed that in 1984, when it forced divestiture of AT&T and created one long distance entity and seven Regional Bell Operating Cos. (RBOCs).
The government stepped in again in 1996 with the implementation of the Telecommunications Act, which opened the market up even further, giving way to Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs). To business owners, this meant hundreds of choices for local and long distance communications providers instead of just one.
Therein lies the need for a basic understanding of telecommunications, because, as in dealings with any vendor, it’s helpful to have a basic knowledge of what you’re buying.
In its very basic form, a telecommunications system consists of a telephone set, a loop (or line), a central office switch and trunks. The system may grow in size, but the concept remains the same. When designing a telecommunications system, which now integrates voice and data capability, it is helpful to be familiar with the terminology. Here, then, is a quick guide to telecom lingo:
CO (central office) — (1) Location of telephone switching equipment where a customer’s lines are terminated and interconnected; (2) Switching center that provides local access to the public network.
CPE (customer premises equipment) — All telecommunications devices (except pay phones) and wiring that is located at the user’s location.
ISDN (integrated services digital network) — Switched network providing end-to-end digital connectivity for the simultaneous transmission of voice, data, video, imaging and fax over several multiplexed communications channels.
IXC (interexchange carrier) — Provider of long distance service.
LATA (local access and transport area) —Geographical area designated by the FCC for the provision and administration of telephone service to individual customers.
LEC (local exchange carrier) — Provider of local telephone service.
Local loop — Communications lines/services between the telephone subscriber and the LEC switching center (i.e. the network).
NPA (numbering plan area) — (1) Area code; (2) Geographic boundary within which no two telephones have the same seven-digit number.
POP (point-of-presence) — Physical location within an LATA where an IXC’s circuits connect with the lines of the local telephone company serving that LATA.
PBX (private branch exchange) — Small, local, telephone office, either manually or automatically operated, serving extensions in a business complex; provides access to the public domain.
PSTN (public switched telephone network) — Any switching system or telecom carrier network that provides circuit switching between public users.
Switch — Electronic device that opens or closes circuits, changes operating parameters or selects paths either on a space or time division basis.
Trunk — (1) Group of circuits that carry call traffic in and out of the switch; (2) Circuit or channel connecting two exchanges or two switching devices.
Understanding the terminology is a real benefit when discussing system design for a new location or expansion of your current operations. While this list is a fraction of the terms and acronyms used in the industry, there are numerous reference publications for the business owner who wants to become more telecommunications savvy.
Contact your local telecommunications provider for more information.
Paul Allen is general manager of Adelphia Business Solutions’ Northeast Ohio office. Adelphia provides voice and data communication services to business customers over a fiber optic network. Before joining Adelphia, Allen worked for MCI Worldwide and British Telecom (London), learning the lingo of telecom.
