Confused about telecoms acronyms?

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