Throughout the telecoms and broadcasting media industry you may find various acronyms and definitions, but what do they mean?

3G  third generation

ADSL   asymmetric digital subscriber line

ASP   application service provider

ASIC   application specific integrated circuit

ATM   asynchronous transfer mode

BLEC   building local exchange carrier

BSP   broadband service provider

CAPs   competitive access providers

CATV   cable television

CDMA   code division multiple access

CLEC   competitive local exchange carrier

CMTS   cable modem termination system

CO   central office

CoS   class of service

COFDM   code orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing

CPE   customer premises equipment 

CRC  cyclic redundancy check 

DBS   direct broadcast satellite

D-ISDN  broadband integrated services digital network

DLC   digital loop carrier

DLEC   digital local carrier

DLSw   data link switching

DOCSIS   Data Over Cable System Interface Specification

DSL   digital subscriber line

DSLAM   digital subscriber line access multiplexer

DSP   digital signal processor

DTMF   dual tone multifrequency

DWDM   dense wavelength division multiplexing

EDGE   Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution

FDM   frequency division multiplexing

FDMA   frequency division multiple access

FLP   field labour provider

FOIP   fax over internet protocol

FPGA   field-programmable gate array

GPRS   general packet radio service

GSM   global system for mobile communications

HDSL   high-bit-rate digital subscriber line

HFC   hybrid fiber-coaxial

IAD   integrated access devices

IC   integrated circuit

ICP   integrated communication provider

IDSL   ISDN digital subscriber line

ILEC   incumbent local exchange carriers (formerly RBOC)

IP   Internet protocol

ISDN   integrated services digital network

ISP   Internet service provider

ITU   International Telecommunications Union

IXC   interexchange carrier

LEC   local exchange carrier

LAN   local area network

LMDS   local multipoint distribution service

MAC   media access control

MCNS   multimedia cable network system

MCS   mission critical site

MDU   multi-dwelling unit

MMDS   multi-channel, multipoint distribution service

MOIP   modem over ip

MOM   message-oriented middleware

MPEG   moving pictures experts group

MPLS   multi-protocol label switching

MTU   multi-tenant unit

NAT   network address translation

NCC   network control center

NDIS   network drive interface specification

NIC   network interface card

NOC   network operations center

OEM   original equipment manufacturer

OSS   operational support system

OXC   optical cross-connect

PAN   personal area network

PE   provider edge

POP   point of presence

POTS   plain old telephone service

QAM   quadrature amplitude modulation

QoS  quality of service / used to limit classify data

RADSL   rate adaptive digital subscriber line

RF   radio frequency

RFP   request for proposal

SATCOM   satellite communications

SDH   synchronous digital hierarchy

SDSL   synchronous digital subscriber line

SOHO   small office/home office

SONET   synchronous optical network

TA   terminal adapator

TCP   transmission control protocol

TDM   time division multiplexing

TDMA   time division multiple access

TP   transponder (or) test point

TRI   telephony return interface

UADSL   universal ADSL

UDP   user datagram protocol

UMTS   universal mobile telecommunications service

USB   universal serial bus

VDSL   very high bit-rate subscriber line

VOD   video-on-demand

VoDSL   voice over digital subscriber line

VoIP   Voice over Internet protocol

VPN   virtual private network

WAN   wide area network

WBI   Web-based Intranets

WLL   wireless local loop

xDSL   any type of DSL service (ADSL, HDSL, IDSL, SDSL or VDSL)

XML   extensible markup language